For the Greater Good
by SapOzh
Summary: What if Harry and Hermione didn't really like the current world of magic? What if they were fascinated with the idea of space travel? What if they would build a star ship?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: **

Mass Effect/Harry Potter Crossover. Somewhat AU. It's still canon universe of Mass Effect. I'll start with the year 2001, three years after the defeat of Voldemort. Both Harry and Hermione will be much darker than in canon. Not evil, but not good either. It's just what the war has done to them. Hermione was tortured, she killed people; Harry killed and was killed for God's sake.

P.S. Yes, I'm Weasley hater, so, yes, it's Harry/Hermione (hopefully but I have... thoughts), but no bashing. I hate bashing. Remus and Tonks are alive, because I didn't want Harry to leave Teddy behind.

_P.P.S. I'm not Sirius on this fic, just had a good mood writing it, after I ate two bowls of RAMEN. Yes, I love ramen. Real ramen, not that ugly tasteless instant piece of Vorcha… fecal matter. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time to cook it. Ramen, not the fecal matter! I wasted eight hours of my precious life to make a perfect pork-chicken-fish bouillon. Consequently it's difficult to have it every day. Fortunately I had enough for a few days... __**How the hell did I end up with telling you about RAMEN?**__ Anyway, don't expect me to post next chapters soon._

_P.P.P.S. Say __**no**__ to ACTA!_

* * *

><p><strong>Summary<strong>:

What if Harry and Hermione didn't really like the current world of magic? What if they were fascinated with the idea of space travel? What if they would build a star ship?

**Notice:**

X lps means X light-second per second means X * 299 792 458 metres per second.

* * *

><p><em><strong>For the Greater Good<strong>_

_by SapOzh_**  
><strong>

**Chapter 1.**

It was the second May of the 2001, three years after the Battle of Hogwarts. Every year many wizards and witches gathered at the Hogwarts to celebrate the victory and to mourn their lost precious people. Like always the Headmistress and Minister would give a long speech before asking the Golden Trio to step forward and tell some story about the battle and their adventures. These weren't pleasant memories and so they would tell about people who helped them in the moments of need. It wasn't until headmistress McGonagall finished her speech and looked for Harry, Hermione and Ron, that they discovered that the only present member of the Golden Trio was Ronald Weasley.

He looked as confused as others, because he knew nothing about sudden disappearance of his two friends, even if their friendship was, for a better word, strained in last three years. It was like a bolt from the blue when Hermione said she was in relationship with Harry. He was angry and jealous at them and it took about a year to get over it. But even after three years he could barely think about them as friends. It was, however, strange they didn't show up today. He frowned when he remembered that he didn't saw them at least for six months. And as the three of them worked at the Ministry, it was rather odd. When his speech was over, he went to the Minister Shacklebolt.

"Ronald," the Minister said, "I really hoped to see them today. Do you know where they are? Since they resigned from the Ministry I only saw them once in the Diagon Alley."

"What? They resigned?"

"You didn't know?" Kingsley asked raising an eyebrow, "I see. That's odd, they were distant last three years, but now they basically cut themselves off from the outside world. We've tried to use tracking charms but it seems they're under fidelius or don't want to be found."

"I thought i was very difficult to cast one."

"Yes, but they're sorcerers and definitely capable."

"Why would they need one? Besides that would need a Secret Keeper."

"Yes."

"Did you try to ask Remus or Tonks? Harry is godfather of their son."

"They said the pair visited them only twice in the last months, but Remus said nothing about fidelius."

"Anyway, why do you need them?"

"Well, they're as important for the magical community as you are. And people are starting to ask questions about their disappearance. The fact they missed this ceremony will make that only worse. Could you try to find them or at least talk to Remus?"

"I try, but I doubt I success."

Neither of them knew that Hermione and Harry simply forgot about the ceremony being absorbed in the project they were working on for six years. Everything began on some spring day during the fourth year in Hogwarts. Hermione and Harry discussed something they were very interested in. The space travel. They both were in love with the stars and sky above, hated the magical community for being bigots towards muggles and didn't trust muggles to be not prejudged against the magic. Sure the magic was interesting, but neither wanted to limit oneself to the magical community. No one besides them was really interested in possibilities the magic was opening for the space exploring. Even other muggleborns were happy to just do a magic. The pair decided to learn muggle science in their free time. They wanted to change the magical community at first, but soon understood that they didn't want to spend their lives as politicians. After the Battle of Hogwarts they saw it first-hand. Thousands of wizards and witches did nothing during the war letting a handful of Death Eaters terrorize them. The Golden Trio already did enough for these cowards and after Ron turned his back on them and these cowards being still the same prejudiced bigots blocked every attempt of Harry and Hermione to change something for better the pair was fed up. They began to make drafts, build prototypes and a year ago started to actually build a starship. Soon they realized that the work at the Ministry was consuming their time and resigned from it in favour of their project.

It wasn't like they were hiding from the outside world. It's just they bought a really big property for the object they were building. They didn't want any attention from neither magical nor muggle worlds at first and a hundred meter long ship would likely attract many visitors. The first prototype they created was only ten meter long, but it was proven useless, since enlargement charms would be nuisance in the long run. It's too difficult to combine an enlarged room with devices outside. They, however, needed a ship to live in, so they decided to build a big one, which wouldn't need any enlargement per se. The vessel that was hidden in the hangar under the fidelius charm was inspired by a television series, but the design was still partly original. The main part of the ship was round and would resemble a flying saucer if not for four long tube-like engines in the back part. It wasn't like they wanted it to remind a flying saucer. The form was just the most efficient. Spacious on the inside; yet streamlined and functional on the outside.

Overall it was a mix of muggle technology and magic. The ship was using charms, derived from simple _feather-light_ and _deprimo_ spells, to reduce or increase mass, so that a faster-than-light travel and a maintaining the artificial gravity were possible. The engines weren't one would normally expect of a starship, since they didn't have nozzles; they were charmed like brooms, so no fuel was needed. The vessel had magical shields, based on _protego_, _bubble-head_ and other charms, which protected passengers from radiation and other dangers. If the shield would fail, the ship still had armour, which was heavily charmed with self-repairing and strengthening enchantments. Harry took a liberty to steal a cruise missile launcher and try it on the ship's hull. Didn't leave a scratch, although some spells sure could cause damage to it. His magical version of railgun for example. Hermione was, however, furious he did something that dangerous before discussing it with her.

Additionally, they had railgun driven based on feather-light charms weapons combined with partly muggle targeting systems they stole from U.S. military and consequently enchanted. Hermione had tried to develop a magical targeting systems, but it had proven to be too difficult. The hull had a disillusionment charm and cooling charm, so they hoped the ship would be secure enough even if they happen to meet some hostile alien civilizations. The vessel was equipped with either muggle communication and sensor devices, which were still enhanced by magic to speed them up and make them reach much further and magical. The second ones were looking for something relatively dangerous for the passengers, just like dark detectors. Other sensors searched for objects that were created with an intent, which meant man-made objects. The most difficult part of the work was to combine everything to enable output on a muggle display and input from muggle keyboards and joysticks. The oxygen was produced in the greenhouse, which was filled with various magical and normal plants. They had, however, backup charms for it if required. The food was a difficult part of their project. Since they planned a long-term travel, they needed much food, so Hermione suggested using her beaded handbag as a start point. They created an extended with a charm cupboard, which had a stasis field on the inside when it was closed. A bottomless fridge, as Harry called it.

At the moment the ship was almost ready for their first trip.

"Harry, did you packed the food?" Hemione asked.

Harry looked at her raising an eyebrow and said, "We won't even leave the Solar System, Mione."

"Doesn't matter."

"The fridge is full. We have food for at least ten years if your charms on it don't fail."

She pouted and said, "My charms never fail."

"Of course not, dear."

"Then, I think we're ready for our first flight," she breathed.

He turned to the ship and went up the ramp, "Let's go then."

"Wait, we must be sure nothing goes wrong."

"Ah, drop it, Mione, let's just try it. We know already that it flies."

With a sigh she followed Harry. "I hope you're right. Besides we need to name the ship. Let's call it the Pandora."

He smiled. "Sure, it's fitting."

When they reached a small bridge, which was designed for only two people, they took their places and switched the whole thing on. Unlike the magical parts, muggle devices needed time to go on, so they waited for a minute until the ship signalled that it was ready and with a deep breath took the ship off the land. The mass of the ship was soon decreased and the Pandra effortless left the Earth's atmosphere. Hermione took the control of the ship and turned it around so that they could glance at the Earth from the space through the viewing port of the bridge. They could use displays, but it wasn't the same.

With a smile she noted, "It's amazing, Harry."

"Yes, it is," he agreed. "Let's test the FTL."

"Alright, set the course on the Mars. Try 5lps at first."

A second later the ship accelerated and in a matter of two and half minutes reached the Red Planet. Although it was beautiful, it was bleak in comparison to the Earth.

"Want to go outside?" Harry asked.

She shook her head. "No," she answered. "There is nothing interesting here. We can take a look at it later."

"Well then, let's..."

"Wait!" Hermione shouted and, taking over the controls, directed the Pandora towards the surface.

Harry frowned and turned around to his girlfriend, "What is it, Mione?"

"Take a look at the data from magical sensors. There is something man-made there."

He laughed and waved a hand at her, "Please, Hermione, these are some bugs in the design of the whole thing. I don't believe in the Martians."

"Just take a look!" she exclaimed.

Harry looked through the glass port and said, "I don't see anything. Just a red ground."

"Because it's underground! Honestly, Harry, you will take a couch for a month if you won't be open-minded. "

"Alright, alight," he said horrified at thought of sleeping on the couch.

"See? Let's take suits and investigate it."

"We didn't test them yet."

Hermione glared at him and stated, "I created them."

Harry chuckled and nodded. He knew that everything created by his girlfriend was carefully tested. To doubt her creations was a blasphemy. His works on the other hand were often unstable, he had, however, the most wicked ideas. The FTL-drive was, for example, his creation adjusted by Hermione. His original goal wasn't a FTL-drive at all, he just wanted to see, what would happen if one creates a field using an overpowered version of feather-light charm, places a steel ball with diameter of ten centimetres there and mass of two and half kilogram and blasts the frozen ball with an overpowered _impulso_ spell, that pushes a target from a caster. Later he would calculate the speed of the ball and get two thousandth of the speed of light at the moment of impact. It was a disaster. Energy released at the impact equalled three hundred fifty kilogram of TNT. Resulting explosion destroyed entire building (fortunately empty) and the wizard was forced to use everything he had to hold the shield charm. He discovered, however, that one could use these charms to create amazing devices and... mass destruction weapons. The later disturbed him somehow.

He put the suit on and waited for Hermione, who was very careful as always. As soon as she was ready, he closed the airlock and they waited for several seconds before leaving the ship. It was funny feeling to take a step on the Mars for both Harry and Hermione. The witch was, however, focused solely on man-made object.

"Are you sure these wand-replacements will work right?"

"Of course! I designed the glove with help of Olivander and I tested it. It worked quite well for me. Not as well as a normal wand, but it's alright."

"There is a way to find out," he said and waved the glove. "**Lumos**."

Hermione smiled at the glowing glove. "I told you. Let's clean this up."

With that she began to vanish sand and stones. Harry followed her example and very soon they reached the structure. Harry's sceptical mood vanished like the sand under Hermione's wand and he was engrossed by the look of obviously man-made construction.

"It's amazing, Mione," he said, "Sorry I didn't believe you."

"It's nothing Harry," she replied and pointed at the wall, "This seems to be a door, doesn't it?"

"Wait, I secure it from the outside atmosphere," he said and created a barrier to shield the door. "**Alohomora.**"

Something clicked but the door remained to be closed with no visible means to open it. Hermione shrugged and used charms to forcibly push the door to the side. It was dark inside, so they launched glowing balls in every direction and stepped in.

"According to the information charm this construction was built more than fifty thousand years ago," Hermione sighed.

"Morgan's ass, that's ancient," Harry exclaimed. "Were they humans?"

"No. Sure, there is a possibility humans degraded over last thousand years, but it's highly unlikely."

He snorted and said, "So they were Martians."

"I didn't say they were. Look, it looks like a computer." Hermione pointed at some device.

"Let's see," he murmured and took a look at the 'computer'. "There is no power supply."

"Either we find it and switch it on or we just use a charm like on our ship," said Hermione.

"There should be some power source. It's better to fuel it with spells."

Fortunately they didn't find any bodies or skillets, but the building was creepy enough due to lack of any light and emptiness. That couldn't scare the pair since they already saw way too much violence in their lives. Harry could easily tell that those who built it were much more advanced than the muggles on the Earth. At least they found some kind of reactor. Their shields protected them from any kind of harmful radiation, but they doubted that they would understand how the thing worked, so they were prepared to inject the energy directly into the energy grid.

"Harry, stop," said Hermione. "I found energy storage cells."

He went up to her and looked at the cells Hermione was pointing to. "Good. Let's try to recharge them."

She nodded and began a complex wand work on the the cells. "It works."

"We'll see. The cable is damaged," he said pointing with his wand. "**Reparo**."

"Don't throw _reparos_ at complex things, Harry."

He grinned and said, "It's the Elder Wand, Mione, don't forget it."

"Even the Elder Wand isn't almighty."

"But it works and this is just a cable. I didn't try to fix the reactor."

"I'm grateful you didn't." She finished her spell panting. "Alright, let's go. It's way too tiring."

"No reason to overstrain yourself. I'm sure it will be enough for a few hours."

She nodded and followed him to the room they found while seeking for a reactor. The room resembled a control room, since there were many computers and devices. They went up to something that seemed to be the main control panel and studied it for a moment. The power was in the energy grid, but computers didn't work. He decided to try and place a hand on the panel. The moment later they noticed light coming from the panel when a holographic interface appeared.

"Well, I don't understand the language."

Hermione grinned and said, "Let's learn it."

"You don't mean that spell?" he asked taking a step back. "Last time I learned a language with it, I had terrible headaches for a week."

"Do you have a choice?"

Harry sighed. "No. Why do you have no headaches?"

"Because I'm smart."

"And me is dumb."

"It's I am dumb, Harry," she corrected without thinking.

The wizard burst into laughing and managed to say, "I can't believe you fell for it. But I'm glad you are accepting that you are dumb."

"A couch for a week, Harry," she said sternly.

"No!" he exclaimed, "Everything but this!"

"Ah, drop it, Harry. I'm willing to forgive you, if you do the spell."

He sighed. "Alright," he said and waved his wand chanting a long spell. A few moments later he fell to his knees and clutched her head.

"Okay, Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly.

He groaned. "No, my head is about to bloody explode. I doubt I will be of any help for next hours. It's much worse than with the Spanish."

"Let me try," she said and repeated the same spell. For her it worked perfectly without any drawback as always. "See?"

"It's not my fault your spelldesign is faulty."

"My spell is flawless, it's your brain that is faulty," she huffed.

"Thank you, Hermione," he waved sarcastically, "You're as kind as always."

"I'm sorry." She sighed. "I didn't mean it."

"Well, your spellwork isn't faulty either," he said. "It's just the terrible headache."

"I'll brew you a drought when we're back at the Pandora," she suggested and took a look at the hologram. "The spell has worked. I understand the language."

"What does it say?"

"Wait."

He sighed and remained silent waiting for her to speak. It wasn't until three hours passed she spoke.

"It's an observation post. They were observing humans."

"Creepy bastards."

"Language. But you're right it's kind of creepy. Thank Morgan they aren't here anymore."

"What else? Where did they come from?"

"There is something about some station, but I have no idea what they meant. There are some starships in here and lots of interesting stuff, but the most interesting part is that the Charon… I mean the moon of Pluto isn't really a moon!"

Harry blinked. "What is it then?"

"A Mass Relay."

"Doesn't tell me much."

"Well, from what I've read, it's like a jumpgate. It works similar to your FTL but creates a mass-free corridor to the Relay on the other end and the ship can travel through the corridor almost instantly."

"That's interesting. Should try to replicate it."

"Please don't. you almost killed yourself when you discovered the FTL."

"What's the reason to live without a risk? I won't die on you, Mione."

"Harry."

"I'm serious. What would you do without a good research?"

She growled and glared at him for a few seconds. "Under my supervision only, Harry,"

"Okay. Can we use the gate?"

"Yes, I will need to tweak our computers, but I don't think we encounter some problems."

"That makes everything easier."

"Do you want to look around?"

"No." He pointed at his head, "It still aches."

"Oh. I don't want either, I only want to go to the storage room."

"What? Where is Hermione and what did you do to her?"

"Relax," she said laughing. "It's just we have entirely different approach to the technology. All the data here is almost useless. We may take a look at their computers, but we would need muggles anyway. Besides I don't want to sit here and research it while we can jump through Relay and see what's on the outside first-hand. This post is ancient, imagine what could happen since then? It's fifty thousand years for Morgan's sake. We should leave it for muggles to research. Perhaps we could help them find it."

"I agree, but I think there are no manned expeditions to the Mars planned."

"What is _imperio_ for?" Hermione asked smiling.

"You do know that we would be imprisoned in Azkaban for a life-time if the Ministry would find out about what we did in last three years? Unforgivables, muggle confounding, improper use of veritaserum and muggle technologies; the list goes on. Do you really want to imperiouse muggles on that level?"

"Of course, Harry. We will be careful, won't we? It's for the greater good. Besides who would dare to stop us? Two sorcerers?"

They weren't any more powerful than others. They, however, used muggle science to create their spells and excelled in that approach. Simple useless charms became deadliest weapons which penetrated every standard shield taught in Hogwarts. _Protego_ won't protect you from a conjured toxic gas. They developed shields that protected even from Unforgivables. Every spell could be stopped by a physical obstacle. Most wizards and witches didn't know that the air was an obstacle too if it was well compressed. But they were called sorcerers because a year after graduation they demonstrated their full control of elements. It wasn't hard if one knew physics.

"You're crazy." He grinned. "And I like that. Pity, I can't kiss you in the suit."

"There is plenty time for in once we back on the ship. Let's go to the storage room."

"Why, by the way?" he asked on the way.

"I read something really interesting. These aliens called it Element Zero."

"Element?"

"It's a material which can be used to control mass fields like we do with your spells."

"It's interesting… for muggles, Hermione."

"Harry. I want to take a small sample to research it."

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Sorry, Mione. I really want to take a nap."

She nodded and opened a door using a spell. "Here we are."

The storage room was big.. There were containers with some kind of devices and materials. He wasn't really interested in devices, since they were probably of no use to them, but he knew that if they would bring here muggles, they would surely benefit of it.

Hermione pointed her wand at a small container shrunk it, lightened and threw it into her bag. "We can go now, Harry."

Soon they returned to the Earth and Harry went to the bed, while Hermione began to research Element Zero. Harry really hated that language learning spell and wasn't surprised when he slept for twenty two hours. He was however even more surprised when he found his girlfriend doing really weird things with some… magical dog. He blinked to be sure he wasn't hallucinating and the animal really was glowing with a blue colour. It was.

"What for Morgan's breasts are you doing?" he asked.

"Language, Harry," she yawned. "I'm doing an experiment on this dog."

"You didn't sleep, did you?"

"No, I found something really astonishing. Look at the dog!"

"It's glowing," noted Harry absently.

"Yes!" she exclaimed happily.

"I could do it with a spell too. What's so interesting about the glowing dog?"

"I integrated Element Zero into its body and connected to the nervous system. I've read about it in that alien base on the Mars."

Harry gave a start. Sometimes Hermione was way too enthusiastic. "Poor thing. And whose dog is it?"

"Don't know, found it in a park."

He frowned and said accusingly, "I'm sure the owner is worried about it."

"I know," she said giving an apologetic look. "I didn't think clearly, after I'd got an amazing result by experimenting on rats. Besides it had a tumour, the dog wouldn't live a month without me. I'll clean the dog up afterwards, don't worry."

"Why is it so peaceful?"

She shrugged. "I imperioused it. Anyway the thing is, the dog can do weird things. I disconnected some nerves that normally would allow the dog to move its legs and redirected them to Element Zero nodules. I nearly lost it..."

"Lost what?"

"My mind, Harry. It took four hours of spellcasting and potion dosing to make needed changes in its body."

"What do you mean by weird things?"'

"Well I'm commanding it, since I believe it's dangerous to let the dog do what it wants. Watch here," she said and went silent for a few seconds.

Harry didn't know what to expect and was confused when a small blue flaring ball appeared in the air next to the dog. Hermione took a pencil and threw it at the ball. The pencil didn't reach the target, however, instead it changed the direction and flew upwards for a second before falling on the floor.

"It's weak and unstable, but the dog can create mass fields," Hermione concluded. "It's amazing, isn't it?"

He caught a twinkle in her eyes and frowned. "You're planning what I'm thinking, don't you?"

She looked at him surprised and said innocently, "I don't know what you are thinking about."

"You want to test it on a human."

"Yes. I want to give some muggle these strange powers and observe for a few weeks."

He understood instantly what she was implying by that. "I won't allow you to do something like that to yourself."

"But Harry, just think about it! We're practically useless without wands, but with these powers we would be able to defend ourselves."

"We have weapons."

"They can be taken too, but this power is always with you."

"You don't know if it isn't harmful."

"That's why I'll try it on another human and heal him if needed. We'll seek someone with a terminal disease and offer him a cure if he accepts to be part of the experiment."

"What about our trip?"

"We waited for years, it can wait a week. Please, Harry, it's so interesting!"

He sighed. "Alright, but go to the bed at first; you need rest. We'll talk about it later."

"Wait, I remove it from the dog."

He wasn't happy about the delay, but if Hermione fixed on something, it's for a better to let her do it, otherwise she would do it anyway but Harry would sleep at a couch. He watched her doing manipulations with her wand on the dog and cringed. It wasn't a pleasant sight. When she completed the procedure she nodded and went to the bedroom. He looked up to the calendar and slapped himself on the forehead. It was the third May and that meant they missed the victory anniversary.

With a sigh Harry put a robe on, apparated to the main entrance of the Ministry and headed directly to the Minister. He was in a meeting, so Harry was forced to wait for twenty minutes, which were spent by a young attractive witch, the Minister's assistant, better known as Daphne Greengrass on trying to seduce the Man-Who-Won. If not for Hermione, Harry would have a really hard time to defend himself against blonde's wandless charms. She was a stunning woman and he knew that many would die to switch places with him this moment. Harry wondered if she had a veela blood in her.

What he didn't know, she was seriously interested in him and was really happy to see him for first time since he resigned six month ago. Unlike her sister she failed to find a boyfriend who would suit her and was extremely jealous of Hermione. But who wouldn't? He was a powerful and rich wizard with alluring green eyes and hot body, the head of the Black family, recipient of the Order of Merlin, first class. Quite a catch for a lucky girl. Daphne, however, was one of the few who weren't interested in his titles. Her family was rich while she was one of the most talented witches of the century second only to Granger, allowing her to consider herself equal to him.

She cursed inwardly for being coward in their fourth year at Hogwarts. He was so alone struggling for help being the youngest Champion. As far as she knew, Hermione didn't really help him. Daphne on other hand knew how to fight a dragon, it took her only three days to get information about the second task. She was just too afraid to take a step forward. She nearly offered him her help in the library, staying a few steps away looking at books he read to prepare himself for the first task. But her mouth wouldn't open and her shaking hand wouldn't dare to move last centimetres to touch his shoulder. Daphne was too afraid of consequences, concerned for her family's well being. She feared she would be shunned by other Slytherins. The girl knew, he would have been hers, if she dared to move, but she had been too scared of being rejected, so she pulled back her hand and gone away unnoticed by Harry. And then it was too late. Voldemort came back and there was no way she would dare to endanger her family by siding with the Boy-Who-Lived. But now she had hope. Perhaps she would find courage to act at last.

She let out a sigh of disappointment when the Minister showed up, because she could see that his battle against hormones was slowly going in her favour (he was a man for Merlin's sake) and Daphne believed she could snatch him if she had more time. She didn't know that he was prepared to run away to stay faithful to his girlfriend when the victory of his hormones would become obvious.

"Harry!" Shacklebolt exclaimed, "Come, let's talk in my office."

Harry nodded and happily followed the Minister away from Greengrass. He sat in a chair and said, "Good day, Knigsley."

"Wish it would be good." Kingsley sighed.

"Something wrong?" Harry asked.

"No, not really. The press gives me headaches."

"Ah. It's because we haven't shown up yesterday, isn't it?"

"Partly."

"Sorry, we were working on a project and completely forgot about the celebration."

"Don't worry. It's nothing. I was, however, worried if something happened to you both."

"Everything is okay, Kingsley."

"Am I right that you live under a fidelius charm?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, it's convenient if you don't want to be bothered."

"I tried to contact you more than once, but my attempts were futile. It would be beneficial to share the Secret with me."

"Sorry, Kingsley, it's not that we don't trust you, but it's better to leave things as is."

Shacklebolt smiled. "It was worth a try. Could you help me with the press? There are rumours that you doesn't support me as the Minister and it makes it really difficult to change our laws."

"I hate the press, but I help you if you call for a press conference."

"Thank you, Harry."

He returned home six hours later and lay next to sleeping Hermione and slowly drifted off. Unknown to him a certain blond haired witch came up with a plan for leading Harry away from his bushy haired girlfriend. She only needed him to visit the Ministry one more time.

The next day Harry followed Hermione to the muggle hospital, where the witch confounded a nurse to access patients data. Soon they found three suitable persons. They were cancer patients, who had almost no time to live. Additionally Hermione selected only those who didn't have any close relatives to minimize the danger of information leak. The two first patients proved to be rude and untrustworthy, so they moved on the last patient who happened to be an nineteen years old girl Eve who was orphaned three years ago in a car accident. She had no known relatives and was visited only one time by a fellow student during last two month she was in the hospital. Hermione opened the door and entered her ward. Fortunately it was a private one.

Taking a seat next to the girls's bed, Hermione sat silent for a few minutes studying her. Eve still had long black hair that matched her big black eyes. It was clear that she was weak, but Hermione could tell that she was an attractive girl despite her condition. Surprisingly the terminal patient didn't say a word either, taking her time observing her visitors.

"Hello, Eve," said Hermione at last.

"Ehm... hi. May I ask who are you? You seem to have me at disadvantage." the girl asked.

"I'm Hermione and this creepy guy with glasses is Harry."

Harry huffed and protested, "I'm not creepy!"

Giving a laugh Eve said, "Well, at least you're funny. It's good to have someone visit me even if it's complete strangers."

"May we have a bit of your time to bore you with a few questions, Eve?" Hermione asked.

"Sure, why not? It isn't like I have something better to do."

"What would you do if you had another chance?"

Eve managed to give a weak smile and said, "Don't know," she said shrugging, "I would continue my education I think."

"Education seems to be important to you," noted Harry.

"Yeah, I like physics." He sighed.

"How good are you at keeping secrets?" the witch asked.

"Secrets? Why? You want to share one with me?" Eve asked clearly interested.

"Probably."

"It's safe with me."

"Good, you aren't lying to me," Hermione smiled.

"How would you know?"

"It's a part of the secret. We have an offer for you."

With a frown Eve looked at the witch and asked, "Offer?"

"I cure you if you take part in our experiment."

"My illness can't be cured!" the girl snapped.

"Like one can't do something like this?" Hermione asked, summoned a fireball with her wand and launched it to fly around the ward.

"Whoa! How did you do that?" Eve exclaimed being shocked. She could tell it wasn't some cheap trick.

"Magic," said Hermione releasing the fire. "I can cure cancer. It isn't easy, but not the most difficult thing I've done in my life. And no, you're not hallucinating, it's difficult to prove though. Yes, I can tell what are you thinking about through the eye contact. I can read your mind."

"Creepy," the girl whispered. "It's not some trick isn't it? Because it's cruel, if it is."

"Don't worry, it's not. You have however to be a part of our experiment, otherwise I will erase your memories about our visit."

"No! Please, don't do that!" Eve pleaded.

"I'm not doing anything at the moment."

"What's the experiment you're speaking about?"

"We have got our hands on a very rare substance that can give a human certain powers."

"Like your magic?"

"No, it's more like an ability to control the gravity."

"You're not some mutants, are you?"

The witch snickered and said, "No, we're sorcerers and the magic has nothing to do with the substance. It will be probably used by non-magical humans in later years to travel across the galaxy."

"Across the galaxy?"

"Yes, all those starships, faster-than-light travel and other nice things."

"So, you want to give me means to control the gravity and cure the illness? I'm not sure why I would say no to the offer."

"Because we want you to keep your abilities secret and don't tell anyone about our existence. We will observe you and hopefully help you learning to control the power. I only tested it on animals, so I don't really know if it's painful or dangerous. I will be there for you, if something should go wrong. You won't die because of it."

"I hope I'm not hallucinating. I agree," Eve said.

"That easy?"

"You would accept it too, if you had only few weeks to live."

"Right. I will begin immediately."

"Are you going to do something too?" The girl looked at Harry, while Hermione prepared herself for the process.

"No, I'm not good at healing," the green-eyed wizard replied.

"And what are you good at?"

"Battle magic and crazy inventions, like FTL-drive," he replied with a smile.

"You mean you have FTL-drive?" she asked wide-eyed.

"Yes, we'll probably show it to you. Not sure if we'll let you keep these memories though."

The girl looked terrified at that though. "Please, I won't tell anyone! It's painful to think I won't remember something this big."

"We'll think about later."

She looked at Hermione, who was chanting some spells and asked, "What is she doing?"

"She's securing the room. We don't want anyone to bother us."

"I'm ready," Hermione said at last. "I have to put you to sleep."

"Okay."

The healing was a long process. It took three hours for Hermione to completely cure the cancer and other minor illnesses muggles couldn't diagnose. The main reason magical folk was long-lived is the magic was taking care of simple diseases and parasites. Now the girl had a really long life ahead. Soon Eve woke up confused and blinked.

"The pain is gone," she whispered. "It was successful, wasn't it?"

"You're perfectly fine now," said Hermione.

"Then it's really gone. I haven't felt this good in ages!" she exclaimed jumping up to her feet and hugged the bushy-haired girl. "Thank you!"

"We took care of everything. You're discharged from the hospital. They'll think you were misdiagnosed."

"But..."

"Harry changed their memories," Hermione answered before Eve could ask. "We still have to implant the Element Zero into you. I hope you're up to the deal."

"I am. I have a problem though. I donated everything I had to a charity foundation few weeks ago. Money, my house and a car. Even clothes. I was kind of prepared to die..."

"Don't worry, we knew about it," Hermione reassured her. "You can move with us for a few weeks. We'll make sure you're well off."

"Thank you. I hope I don't have to give up my soul for your help," he smiled.

"Well, we could find a use for your soul," thoughtfully said Hermione.

"Wha-at?" The girl blanched with terror.

"Relax," Harry said suppressing a laugh. "That was a joke."

"Warn me next time," she said sighing with relief.

Harry laughed, "Take my hand, I'm going to appa... ehm... teleport us."

"Wait, I'm basically naked… How the hell am I dressed?"

"We took liberty to transfigure your hospital dress to something more appropriate."

"Transfigure?" she asked confused.

"Look, we'll show you later," Hermione said sternly, "I don't want to renew the wards."

"Okay. It the teleportation dangerous?"

Harry took her hand and said, "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe."

The next moment he disappeared with a loud CRACK, Hermione followed a second later.

"That wasn't nice," Eve said when they reappeared, holding her head with both hands feeling struggling against a feeling of nausea. "Where are we?"

"Somewhere near Birmingham." Harry said. "Let's go."

"What? You've just teleported us from London to Birmingham?" he asked following him.

"Yeah. Get used; you will work with us for next weeks."

"But it's amazing! Are there more people like you two?"

"Well, we're unique, but yes, several thousands. There are magical communities around the Earth hidden from the rest of the world."

"Wow, how is that possible?"

"Don't be too excited," Hermione yawned. "They're bigots stuck in the Stone Age. I'm exaggerating, of course. Anyway, there are laws to keep magic secret and if someone witnesses it he or she would lose memories of it."

She frowned. "I don't like the idea of manipulating memories."

"Unfortunately, it's necessary," said Hermione. "Humans fear everything unnatural. And they define anything different from them unnatural. Muggles, I mean, non-magicals would likely destroy the magical world and enslave survivors."

"You don't know it," Eve said.

"Yes, we know. Ever heard of witch-hunts?" Hermione asked. "There are many examples for mistreatment of magical children in the non-magical world. If one's own family can't accept that their child is magical, how do you expect governments to accept existence of beings with abilities like mind control, memory tampering, teleportation, invisibility? Beings that can kill and torture without any traces, beings that can fly and destroy entire cities using simple spells?"

"D-destroy entire cities?" Eve asked shuttering.

"Well, that would be me and Harry. As I said, we're unique. I doubt other magicals are able to do something like that. We on the other hand can destroy planets with our bare hands if we wish. It's not that difficult. Find a large asteroid, reduce its mass, push it towards a planet and restore the mass. We don't even have to calculate trajectory, we have spells to direct it to the planet."

"Have you done something like this already? I mean destroyed a city?"

"No, do we look like villains?" the witch asked.

"But it's disturbing that someone has such a power!"

"That's why magical world should stay hidden. Humans believe in gods, but when they meet their idols all they want is to flee."

"Are you comparing yourself to a goddess?" Eve asked Hermione.

"Why not? I can change my appearance, control elements, teleport to every single place on the Earth create things out of nothing, vanish them. I can even be immortal, Eve. Aren't my powers godlike?"

"Immortal?"

"Sure, I can bind my soul to an object, which would become almost indestructible and then live a long and happy life. Even if you atomize my body, I would eventually come back."

"Is she serious?" Eve asked Harry.

"Yes." He nodded. "We didn't plan to be immortal, but in the light of our discoveries we might consider it. There is way too much to learn. The afterlife can wait."

"Yay!" Hermione exclaimed happily. "You agree at last?"

"Well, I want to see the galaxy, not the half of it." He sighed in defeat.

"Sorry, have to erase this memory," Hermione said to Eve and pointer a wand at her. "**Obliviate!**"

"Immortal?" the girl asked again.

"Nah… she is joking," Harry replied. "There is no way one can be immortal. Take this," he said and handed her a small piece of paper.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Just read and remember it."

She nodded and read the note confused. As soon as she remembered it, Eve shrieked as she saw a massive old storehouse appear out of nowhere. To the left was a small three-storey house, where Hermione and Harry were leading the girl to.

"Where did all this come from?"

"It was always there. We had installed wards keeping the location hidden."

"And to see it, one needs to read the note?" Eve questioned.

"Yes, something like this," Harry answered chuckling.

"Oh, I see. But why do you live here? With your powers you could afford a palace in the middle of London!"

"We needed a place to construct a starship. This storehouse suited our needs perfectly."

"There is a startship in there?" she said excited.

"Yes," answered Hermione.

"Does it fly?"

"Yes."

"May I fly it?"

"We'll see."

"Don't be ridiculous, Mione. Of course she may," Harry said..

The witch glared at him and murmured, "Couch for a week."

"No-o!" he cried crushed.

"Why is he so upset? It's just a week," Eve said smiling coyly.

"He can't live without it a day," Hermione told her grinning. "As I said he's creepy pervert with glasses."

"By the way, why does he need glasses? Can't you fix his eyes with magic?"

"They're fixed," Hermione answered, "It's just that he looks even more creepy without glasses."

"I'm not creepy!" Harry protested. "Right, Eve?"

"Leave me out of it, please," she replied laughing. "Besides, she cured me!"

"Great, now I have two women on my shoulders."

Hermione grinned madly and said, "The more the better, Harry."

A last they entered the house. Eve noticed that it was a lot larger on inside but decided to not ask, because she knew she would receive a short and clear answer: "magic". Their home looked modest, not really what she expected of beings of such power. It was furnished with an almost Spartan simplicity. But when she thought about it, why would they need something luxories? They could create everything with their magic.

"Welcome to our humble home," Harry announced. "Follow me, I'll show you the room."

"While I prepare everything for the procedure of implantation," the witch added.

"Now?" Eve asked startled.

"Why not?" Hermione frowned. "The sooner we do it the better. Don't worry, I hope it won't be painful."

"Well, I don't have much a choice, do I?" the girl whispered with a sigh and followed the wizard.

Now when she wasn't terminal ill now, she had her doubts. She would however keep her word, she owed them that at least. They went up the ladder and Harry opened a door on the right side. The room had a bit more comfort than the rest of the house, but still a bit Spartan for her teste.

"Here, this will be your room for next weeks. I hope it's alright," Harry said, when they went up.

"It's okay," she said. "Will I be able to go out during these weeks?"

"Well, you can go out, but not beyond the wards. We'll make sure to the borders distinguishable for you. It's for your own safety. As soon as we're finished, we'll give you some money and teleport you to London."

"Some money?" she asked.

"Don't worry, it will be enough to buy a castle and handful of Lamborghinis," Harry reassured her.

"It's too much!" she exclaimed. "You've already done for me enough by curing the cancer."

"It's nothing, Eve. We're practically the richest people on the Earth. Not that it's a known fact. We have to be sure you're well off, since you will have these powers and we will continue to observe you."

"I'll be watched entire life?"

"No, we'll just come by every few years so you can tell us how it's going," he explained. "Let's go back to Hermione. I'm sure she's already waiting for you." Harry looked at her and sighed. "Don't worry, everything will be alright, I promise you."

She took a deep breath and nodded. Harry smiled and led her to Hermione, who already prepared a surgical table and instruments. At her left he saw the dust form of Element Zero hovering in shielded field. Eve froze when she saw the table and scalpels.

"Don't worry, you won't have any scars," said Hermione looking up at the girl.

"I thought you would do it with magic," Eve said.

"Well, these instruments are magical. Lie down the table please, I'll sedate you. You won't feel anything."

The girl swallowed hard, took a step forward and forced herself to lie down on the surgical table. She was extremely scared. Her senses were screaming at her to flee, but restrained herself breathing deep trying to stay calm. She didn't remember how she fell asleep, but the moment she woke up from magic-induced sleep she felt different. Eve didn't know what exactly was different though. She looked around and saw Hermione. She looked terrible, bloodshot eyes with dark bugs, her hair was extremely messy. She was deathly pale and looked like she would fall over any momen.

"Welcome back to the world of living," the witch said with a weak smile. "How do you feel?"

"Different," she answered.

"What do you mean? Do you feel pain somewhere?"

"No, it's just different," she failed to explain, "Don't know how to explain it. Was it successful?"

"Yes, I successfully implanted Element Zero. Unlike the dog I tested it on, you have the Element Zero in almost every cell of your body. It's a strong mutagen and I sped up necessary mutations. I feared it would lead to harmful tumours, so I protected you against it. Took almost a week."

"A week?"

"Yes, had to be sure, you were alright. There were no complications, don't worry," Hermione said weakly.

She was very tired. She was barely holding herself from falling asleep. During the whole process she slept only eight hours. Unknown to Eve, there were complications and Harry sadly wasn't really of any help aside potions he brewed for her as stimulators. Eve nearly lost her life six times during the process. Hermione worked really hard to stop appearance of new tumours and necrosis without removing Element Zero from her body. The witch wished she'd have tested the whole process on that blasted dog at first. Fortunately Hermione managed to solve all the problems before her tiredness became an issue.

"So, do I have these powers you spoke of?"

"Yes, but you'll have to learn. If you don't mind, I'll go and take a nap."

"You didn't sleep all these days?" Eve asked horrified.

"I slept a bit, but not nearly enough."

"May I use the kitchen?"

"Don't bother, Harry will be back from the Diagon Alley any minute, he'll cook something for you. You might want to go to your room, he took liberty to buy clothes for you."

"Thank you," the girl said.

Hermione nodded and left the room leaving Eve alone. The moment she took a look at herself she barely held a shriek: she was naked. She jumped of the surgical table and ran to her room afraid that Harry would see her like this. What did Hermione think leaving her like that. Eve shook her head recalling how the witch looked like. It was obvious that she was too tired to think of it. She frowned when she remembered that it was already a week and, most likely, Harry saw her naked already. She took a shower, dressed herself, surprised by the amount of various clothes in her room and went to the hall at the same moment when Harry opened the door and entered the house. He had a beautiful white cat in his arms. She could swear that the animal actually looked at her wide-eyed in surprise as if it didn't expect to see her here.

"Eve?" the wizard asked. "Where is Hermione? Is she alright? Was she able to finish implantation?"

"Yes, everything okay. She went to bed."

"Thank Morgan," he said with relief. "I was so worried."

"She looked terrible. Will she be okay?"

"If she went to bed, than yes, she will be alright."

"Is it your cat? Didn't see it yesterday… I mean a week ago." She laughed.

"Well it's a difficult question. I found the cat today at the Diagon Alley. It's like a supermarket for wizards. Cliodna (it seems to like the name) didn't want to let go of me, so I used a spell to determine the owner. Surprisingly the cat had no owner, so I asked in the pet store if she was a run-away, but no, she wasn't! It was so cute, when she clung on to me, so I decided to take it in. Besides, Hermione loves cats. Pity that Crookshanks died." He sighed. "Of course there were problems with charms around the place, but it was worth the trouble. Cliodna is beautiful, isn't it?" he asked with a smile and let the cat on the floor.

"Yes. You looks so excited," she said grinning.

"I like the cat. It's so cute."

"Who is Morgan by the way?" she asked.

"Wait a moment. I'm sure you're hungry, aren't you?" he asked heading to the kitchen.

"Yeah, I would eat a horse!" Eve exclaimed.

"Alright, I hope you aren't a vegetarian."

"No," she replied confused following him.

"Good," he said smiling, "Because I'm not used to cook anything vegetarian."

The kitchen was the best furnished room in the whole house because Harry loved a good meal, and to cook it one need a good kitchen.

"So, who was Morgan?" she asked when he started to make a dinner.

"Morgan le Fay. Surely you know of her. King Arthur Pendragon, Merlin, Nimue and Morgan."

"You mean they were real?"

"Of course! Other wizards use Merlin's name instead Morgan's. It's equivalent for God in those expressions, because he's the most respected wizard in the magical world. After I and Hermione discovered the truth about Merlin and Morgan, we vowed to never use his name like this. Sure Morgan used extremely dark magic, but unlike Merlin she never was evil. Like a sword magic can't be evil. The one who wields it may be evil, but not the sword itself. Even sacrifices can't be treated like an evil act per se. Even the darkest magic that needs sacrifice can be justified. What if one life would save thousands? One should think of the Greater Good. It's just plain stupid to consider her evil, when she was a perfect Gryffindor…"

"Gryffindor? Could you tell me the whole story? I'd like to learn more about the magical world."

"There is a school for wizards and witches. Students from the age of eleven are sorted in four houses based on their characters. House of Gryffindor for courageous and chivalrous, Ravenclaw…" he took a frying pan and used magic to heat it. "Ravenclaw for wise and witty, Hufflepuff for loyal and hard working and Slytherin for cunning and ambitious."

"You were sorted too, weren't you?" Eve asked.

"Yes, I and Hermione were sorted into Gryffindor. The bloody Hat wanted to place me into Slytherin though, but I argued with it."

"Wait, the Hat? And I though students are sorted based on their characters!" she said.

"A magical Hat that can read mind and sort students in a House. You see, if you're sorted into a Slytherin, it doesn't mean you're now wise and witty or not courageous and chivalrous. No one is that simple, right? The hat takes your wishes into consideration."

"Oh, I think I understand. Sorry, I interrupted you again. Continue about Morgan please."

"Ah, yes, of course. Morgan le Fay was a Gryffindor, Merlin – a Slytherin. Don't take me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a Slytherin. Morgan didn't care for her image and reputation, she wanted to preserve the magical world as it was and did everything she could, sacrificed everything she had, losing her children and life on the way to save magical beings. She failed. Merlin bested her, but not in a magical duel. He was a Slytherin and as such used cunning to build up an image of a good, wise and powerful wizard. At the same time he tarnished Morgan's reputation. Alas the witch wasn't prepared to all those lies Merlin spread about her. She lost her allies and chances to win the war but kept fighting desperately. In the end her kingdom fell, many sentient races were destroyed by greedy, driven by ideas of human supremacy, Merlin and Arthur."

"It's horrible. How come, they're hailed as heroes even in the normal… I mean non-magical world?"

"History is written by the winners, Eve."

"But how do you know it?"

"One should know the right person to talk to. There is a certain ghost that is quite knowledgable."

"Ghosts?"

"Yes, they do exist."

"Are there still other races?"

"There are. Goblins, merpeople, vampires, werewolves, centaurs… but the majority was destroyed by Pendragons, Merlin and his followers. Elves, true dragons, dwarfs and other beings. Beautiful and intelligent race of elves was reduced to slaves for wizards. Once wise dragons were drained of sanity, and dwarves were just killed off by the alliance of goblins and humans. We hope to use DNA samples to restore some races and find counterspells for dragons and elves."

"Wow, you're passionate."

"Sorry. I didn't want to bore you to death."

"No, it's very interesting. So you two want to change the world?"

"No, not really. We have three goals: explore the universe, restore balance in the magical world and bring civilizations of the Earth to stars. The second goal is extremely difficult but we have a few ideas," he explained and put a rump steak on her plate and gave another one with a side dish. "Here you are."

"Thanks."

They sat to table and ate silent for a few minutes. Eve was way too hungry to speak and Harry was petting his new cat, which jumped into his lap when he sat down. Harry was a bit surprised that Cliodna was so clingy, but dismissed it since he knew that in the magical world it was a common occurrence. It seemed that he found a new familiar after the death of Hedwig. Funny that it was a cat.

"So when are you going to teach me?" Eve asked the green-eyes wizard after she emptied her plates.

"We can try now, if you want, but Hermione has a better understanding of your powers. I doubt, however, she will be awake until tomorrow."

"I'd rather try now."

He nodded and said, "Alright, I need to take something and then we go outside."

Harry put Cliodna down and went out of the dinning room. Soon he returned with a big chest and waved at her to follow him. The cat went along as well to Eve's amusement. The pet was very clingy. She followed the wizard to the park and then to small clearing between the storehouse and some forest. He stopped there and said that it was the best possible place for training.

"Now, how do I control the power?" she asked being nervous.

"I don't know. Unlike the dog, you have to learn using new nerves in unfamiliar way. The best idea I have is to use extreme emotions, so that you would accidently reach for these nerves and use the power."

"And how do we do it?"

"Easy," he said, put the chest before her and opened it with a spell jumping off from it.

The next moment Eve froze horrified by the sight of a familiar woman who resembled her. Harry didn't know at first what was so scary about her, but then woman's flesh began to rot and she turned into a corpse with glowing eyes.

The girl took a step back, when the woman before her said, "You're just like me! Magic? Cure from a cancer? You've got mental like me! Insane. Insane! INSANE!" She cried and cracked up with a mad laughter.

"M-mother? No! That's not true! That can't be!" Eve exclaimed and took another step back while her mother went to her. "Get away from me!"

Eve fell to the ground and then it happened. Her body flared with blue light and the boggart was thrown away from her. The wizard would be thrown back too, but he managed to shield himself and Cliodna in time with a spell. The girl, however, passed out due to outburst of energy. Harry quickly casted a _riddicolous_ spell at the boggart, threw the creature back to the chest and took a look at Eve. She was alright, but exhausted. It was a success. They could work on her powers now. He and Hermione would use legilimency to learn how to control it. As for now, the girl needed rest. Harry looked around and noticed scared cat, which looked at the unconscious girl warily. The wizard smirked and petted it reassuring, lifted Eve in his arms and headed home.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

Initially, I wanted to include an immortal character (an elf), but in the end couldn't find a place for her in the story. There were too many problems I couldn't solve, so I was forced to take out 2,500 words of text with the elf. Pity :D

The chapter came out shorter than I anticipated, but I told everything I wanted and I don't like to beat around the bush. It's raw unbetaed and uncorrected.

P.S. Other stories are still in work. Wasn't in the right mood :D

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

Surprisingly Hermione was the first one to wake up. It was a middle of a day, so Harry was absent. She took a shower and went searching for Harry. She was very interested in results of her experiment. Hermione made extensive changes to the body of the girl. She even ensured that Eve's children would inherit new traits. The witch didn't know for sure if it worked, but the prospect of creating a new kind of human was exciting. The only problem was that Eve and her descendants would need food enriched with Element Zero once a while, because the girl couldn't survive without Element Zero anymore. She could, of course, simply inhale the substance. Unfortunately Hermione wasn't able to duplicate Element Zero using magic.

She found Harry in his study. She wasn't surprised that he read a book on controlled fusion, but she didn't expect to see a white cat sitting in his lap. The witch went to him and petted the cat.

"Where did you get it?" Hermione asked.

"Ah, you are up at last. Next time you do something that reckless..."

"I know," she interrupted him. "Won't happen again. You didn't answer the question."

He shrugged. "Found it in the Diagon Allee."

Hermione frowned and looked at the cat suspicious. "Did you test it?"

"Yes. I performed anti-animagus spell and other spells. It's a cat."

"Well it's cute," she said with a smile. "What's the name?"

"Cliodna."

The witch snorted, "Odd name."

"She likes it," Harry said. "I performed planned experiment on your Subject."

"Boggart exposure?"

"Yeah, and the Subject has proven to be most interesting," he said and smiled. "Eve saw her mother turned into an inferius, which then stated that Eve had gone mad."

"What? How did she know of inferius?"

"I thought about it. Want to wait until she wakes up to confirm it, but probably her mother was one of the victims of the war and obliviators did poor job. Maybe her mother was a witch who never said that to her family until some point and was declared mad later. I can see something like that happen if she didn't have a wand. A horrible fate, by the way."

Hermione frowned. "What about abilities?"

"Success. She released amazing amount of the energy and lost consciousness. It was difficult to hold the shield."

"Is she alright?"

"Just exhausted," he replied. "It seems I would need to study healing magic to perform it on you, Hermione."

"Yeah," she nodded. "It was terrible experience, but I believe that next time it would take only two or three days. If you learn how to do it, it won't be that difficult. I believe I can brew a potion that would do the most of the job."

"That's good news," he smiled and stood up. "Let's go outside. There is something I want to show you."

"Not again!" she exclaimed. "The last time you had this expression on your face was when you discovered FTL-Drive."

"Don't worry," he said and grinned. "I had to do something during the week you worked on Eve and, well, the time you were sleeping. Let's go."

Hermione was worried because his ideas tended to be dangerous and she was sure the thing he was going to show her was one of those ideas. She sighed and followed him outside. What she saw there was odd looking rings two meter in diameter located several dozen meter from each other.

"Kneel before me, the genius!" he said dramatically.

The witch snorted and said, "Shut up, Harry. What the deal with these rings?"

He didn't answer; instead he levitated a big rock and banished it through the ring. The rock disappeared as soon as it reached the ring. The same moment it appeared out of the other ring and fell to the ground. "These are magical version of Mass Relays," he explained.

"You promised that you wouldn't work on it without my supervision!" she cried furiously.

He smiled. "Relax, I didn't do anything dangerous. The thing is simple as pie."

Hermione sighed and asked, "So it works?"

"Yeah. It works with non-living things very well. People would need good shielding to go through it, but our ship wouldn't have any problem with it. The only real problem I experienced was maintaining connections between three rings, but I'm sure you would solve it in no time. We need only a way to choose a destination."

"Does it have distance limitation?"

He nodded. "Well, that's another, rather minor problem. Theoretically, about fifty light years, but we would need a good power source; otherwise the maximal distance between the gates is only hundred meters. And you know the only reliable magical source."

Hermione frowned and whispered, "Souls."

"Yes," he nodded. "We would need to bind a soul to each ring to power these gates."

"We don't need them right now, but if necessary…" She paused.

Harry nodded and finished, "we'll do what is needed."

Hermione sighed and asked, "How did we become so much like Grindelwald?"

The wizard scowled and uttered, "We're nothing like him. He used the same philosophy for the wrong reason."

"How do we know that our reasons aren't wrong?" she growled and sent a _reducto_ to a tree.

Harry took a step towards her and hugged. "Mione, we want to restore the Old World, we want to explore the galaxy and lead everyone towards stars. What's wrong with our goals?"

She relaxed and kissed him. "You're right. There is nothing wrong. It's just in the moments like this I think about my parents. What would they think about me, if they knew that I'm ready to murder people like this?"

"There is enough scum in this world that deserve to die and if it saves other lives? Maybe your parents would understand, but you know, that not everyone is strong enough to take this kind of responsibility. We saw it during the war and were foolish at some point too. How many lives could have been saved if the 'light side' would take more serious actions against Voldemort? You do remember, what we decided, do you? We'll do the necessary if they can't, otherwise… I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Yes," she sighed. "It's for their own good."

She shook her head. "By the way, why rings?"

"No reason. Rectangles are just as good," he said with a grin.

"I'm glad it worked," Hermione said. "But next time you do something without me, I kill you."

"Ah," Harry drawled, "You and your empty threats."

"Couch for tonight, my dear," the witch said with a grin.

"Oh? But now there's Eve living with us. She is… sexy, and powerful as well," he said coyly and apparated behind her before she could hex him. Unfortunately Hermione knew him too well and as soon as he appeared a hex smashed into his chest sending him flying for a few metres.

"That felt good!" she said satisfied.

Harry groaned and stood up. "How do you manage to hit me every bloody time?" he exclaimed. "It's damn frustrating!"

"You should know better than provoke me," she laughed.

"But really, Mione, I'm hopeless in I duels against you. I'm getting soft."

She grinned, "Don't worry, Harry. You're not. It's just because you don't want to harm me. You know that magic is about intent."

He scowled and muttered, "That means, however, that you want to harm me."

"Oh yes, of course I want, because you're pervert!" the witch exclaimed and cracked up with laughter. She then looked up at the cat and said, "The cat looks quite scared."

"Well, you are scary, Mione."

"Thanks." She grinned. "I'm hungry."

He facepalmed at his stupidity and sighed. "I'm terribly sorry. Totally forgot that you'd be hungry. Want to go out?"

"Yes, I'd like that," she nodded.

"Take my hand, I'll bring us somewhere nice."

The witch smiled, took his hand and a moment later they disappeared with a loud crack leaving the white cat alone. Harry placed a spell to prevent her leaving the wards and going near the rings, so he didn't worry about her running away. A minute the cat stayed near the rings and studied them. Then it went inside.

* * *

><p>When Eve woke up she panicked, but after few moment she began to calm down, seeing that she wasn't in hospital. She was in her room at those wizard's place. The last thing she remembered was her dead mother and that was scary. No, it was terrifying! She didn't remember what happened and why she was in her bed. More important why she… Eve blushed realizing that she was in her underwear. That meant that Harry had to undress her. The girl shook her head and stood up. A hour later she moved down the ladder, but stopped when heard voices of Hermione and Harry.<p>

"...I doubt that," she heard Hermione's voice. "But you're right, we can't endanger the Earth by activating the Mass Relay."

"And what does it leaves us with?" the second person asked. That was Harry.

"I may be mistaken, but if I'm right, than the Mass Relay leads to the Arcturus. The star is more than thirty six light-years away, so we could be there in about two hundred fifty days if we use your FTL-Drive. Without a time dilation it's perfectly acceptable."

"Well it is acceptable, if we use the stasis chamber," added Harry. "Otherwise I would go mad in twenty five dozen days being confined to the starship."

Eve heard Hermione's laugh. "Yes. I would too. That leaves, however one problem. We would still lose too much time, so I suggest we leave one of your Jumpgates somewhere in the Solar system and take the other one on the ride. We would..." Hermione's voice got quieter and Eve couldn't hear what she was saying. "...souls..."

"That's a good idea," Harry said. "You can come out, Eve. There is no need to eavesdrop."

She blushed and came out embarrassed, that she was caught. She couldn't be certain what they were speaking about, but the one thing was clear: they planned a space travel, and, well, she was very interested. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she didn't to go with them.

"I'm sorry," she said looking down, "I didn't mean to. I was... I heard what you were speaking about..."

"And we've got you interested?" Harry asked grinning.

"Yes, kind of," she mumbled.

"That's great!" he exclaimed with a exaggerated enthusiasm. "We talked about you a few minutes before. An since you're interested, you're coming..."

"Harry, you're getting ahead of yourself," Hermione interrupted him and said to Eve. "What he was trying to tell..."

"I know what I was trying to tell, Mione!" Harry exclaimed.

"Be silent, otherwise..." Hermione scowled.

"I hate you," he said and sighed.

"Now when he is silent at last," Hermione told her with a smile, "I'll tell you what is this about. Before we had found the substance I implanted into you, we were planning a space journey. We wanted to explore the galaxy using our newly constructed starship. Since we need time to observe you, we were forced to put our plans on hold. But while we were going out today, Harry had an idea. You're a good person, you don't really have anyone and anything in this world, and we can trust you... Yes I know that because I can easily read your mind, Eve. That's not important right now. The idea is to ask you to come with us. We won't force you, we can stay here for a few weeks and then let you go, if you don't want to... But I see that you're thrilled by the thought of coming with us, so..." the Witch blushed and stopped talking.

"Could you stop it, please?" Eve pleaded. "I mean you're answering my questions before they even pop up."

Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry. I won't invade your mind without a need anymore. Legilimency became sort of habit in the last year. As I was saying, we're offering you to come with us. It may take a few years, but we would travel in a stasis chamber..."

"Like a cryosleep pod?"

"Exactly. That's why the journey would take only months for you. On the other side, we would be able to teach you using your new power and observe you without a need to put everything on hold."

"Well, count me in! You can't be serious about me passing this opportunity?"

"Good to hear it, Eve," Harry said. "Do you have something to do before we go?"

"You mean... we leave now?"

He snorted, "No, you silly, we still need a few days to prepare everything and say our goodbyes."

She though it over and realized that she didn't really have someone to say goodbye and it was exactly as Hermione said. She had no one and nothing, that would hold her on the Earth. The illness ruined her life even if she managed to live through it and get even more healthier than ever.

"No, I'm ready to go wherever you want to go."

Harry smiled and said, "Well then, Hermione will tell you everything you want to know about journey. Have to go to the Ministry." When he moved to the door, the cat clawed his leg and clinged onto it. Harry smiled, took the cat and placed on the flood. "No, Cliodna, you have to stay." With that he left the house and soon disappeared with a CRACK.

"Well, let's go, I'll show you the ship," Hermione said.

"Really?"

"There is no need to hide something from you, is there? "

The witch smiled and led the girl to the storehouse. It wasn't all that great, just an old dusty building. However, as soon as she saw the ship, Eve couldn't help but smile. The girl was amazed by the size of the vessel, but it was design that forced a smile on her face. It was way too familiar.

"Do you and Harry like Star Trek?" she asked. "Because the ship looks awfully similar to those from the tv-series."

"Not really," Hermione answered. "It was just the best design we came up with. A sphere would be too big, ugly and mostly useless. A long and tiny look would be simply too long. Would you want to walk two hundred metres every time you needed to get to the greenhouse from the cockpit? So a disc was a perfect solution. The cockpit is located in the center of the disc and you can reach easely every section of the ship. These rods are engines and they have to be like this."

Eve nodded and told, "Makes sense then."

"Let's get inside," Hermione said and led Eve to the ship.

The first room they stepped in was quite a small square one, about five meter in diameter. It was mostly empty, but she noticed five interesting looking suits hanging on the wall.

"That's airlock." Hermione said. "We developed special charms which make possible to regulate pressure and clean the room. Do you know what it is and why a ship needs one?"

"Yeah, pressure differences, toxic atmospheres and many other problems."

The bushy haired witch smiled and said, "Exactly. I'm glad that I don't have to explain everything." She pointed at suits and explained, "These are space suits. They're much better than those you probably know. Don't feel much different from normal clothes, but extremely reliable."

"Amazing!" Eve exclaimed and muttered, "I wonder how much NASA would pay for those."

Hermione laughed and suggested, "Let's go. There is still much to show." She exited the airlock and entered next room. "That's the main and only circular corridor. You can access every section of the ship from this corridor. Every door on the inner wall leads to the cockpit. The room to the right is the greenhouse. It's responsible for oxygen production, but that's not the main reason we dedicated a room for plants. We need them for various potions."

"Potions?" Eve asked, as she looked around the greenhouse.

"Yes. You heard stories about love potions, didn't you?" Hermione asked and continued, when Eve nodded, "These stories are true. Sometimes witches and wizards use the love potions. There are, however, much more useful things to brew."

"It's beautiful here, so much plants," Eve whispered and tried to touch a blood red flower.

Hermione however grabbed her hand and warned, "Don't touch it. Highly poisonous. Better not touch anything here, because some plants here may want to eat you alive."

Eve paled and nodded, "Thanks for the warning. How come this room is so large?"

"It's the one of the few rooms we magically enlarged. We need a lot of ingredients for our potions."

Soon they left the greenhouse and moved further through the corridor. Eve noticed that the interior design was nothing she expected of a starship. It wasn't that unlike of their house. Comfortable, but spartan. The next room they visited was a big lab. There were many devices, many of which she couldn't recognize, and some magical things. After Hermione showed her the cockpit, her room, which was small but good enough to live, main hold, Eve was led to the kitchen.

"That's the best thing of the room," Hermione said proudly pointing at a big cupboard.

"A cupboard?" Eve asked confused.

"Not really. Harry calls it bottomless fridge." Hermione smiled and continued, "Just open it and call for something you want to eat."

Eve shrugged and opened the cupboard. It was empty but she did as she was told. "Well, I want crisps." The next moment crisps appeared on a shelf before her. "Wow, that's awesome! Can this thing produce anything I want?"

"No, not really," Hermione answered. "The problem is, you can't create food using magic. Well, there is a way, but it's not really worth trying, since you would spend days to create something edible. So we stuffed the cupboards with tons of various food."

"Well, it's awesome anyway, I would like to have such a fridge at home."

"We may give it to you later," the witch offered with a smile.

"Really?"

"Don't know yet. But there are more important things to discuss. I know that you agreed to come with us, but you should know that we discovered fifty thousand years old alien ruins on the Mars."

Eve's eyes widened and she asked, "There are Martians?"

"No, they came from other part of the galaxy and used the planet to observe our race. We don't know why, but at some point these aliens abandoned the base on Mars. Sure we could probably investigate and explore the ruins again, but it would take time. The truth is, there is a Mass Relay Network in the galaxy, probably built by these aliens. It makes possible to travel instantly across the galaxy. It's like stargate network, if you know what I mean."

"Like the movie?"

Hermione nodded, "Yes, something like that. One of those Relays is located in the Solar system. We want to use the network to explore the galaxy. We think it's stupid to limit ourselves by investigating the ruins, when we can go to these species and ask them directly."

Eve stayed silent for a few moments and said, "But that could be dangerous."

"We're used to danger, Eve. Besides we decided to let the Relay in the Solar System stay inactive and travel to the Arcturus system using our FTL-Drive. This way we wouldn't endanger the Earth."

* * *

><p>At the same time Harry went to the Ministry. He had to let people know that they would travel for next years and wouldn't be available. Remus and Nymphadora knew already, since he first visited them before going to Ministry. Unexpectedly he ran into the Ron Weasley on the way to the Minister. Harry didn't see him for a several months and was surprised that the former friend had long hair now. It was odd to see him like this. It was quite difficult to talk to him, since there were not much of their friendship left. Harry knew that both sides were equally at fault, but it was too late to change anything.<p>

"Hello, Ron," Harry said.

"Harry," greeted the redhead.

"I see you let your hair grow long."

Ron smiled and nodded. "Yeah, like a proper pureblood." At that Harry scowled, but Ron continued before Harry could say something, "It's nothing like that and you know that. It's just easier to get what you need in this Ministry if you plays by their rules."

"Sure," Harry snorted. "You always looked for an easy way."

"At least I do something," Ron replied, "Unlike you, who resigned."

"We have more important things to do than endless debates in the Ministry. But enough of this. I didn't come here to argue with you. You might want to know, that I and Hermione will travel for next few years and won't be available for owls and other means of communication. We would be glad if you tell this to your father, Ginny, George and, well, others of your family."

The redhead sighed and nodded, "I'll make sure they know."

"Thank you."

"Say, I always wanted to know, why have you lied to me that day when I destroyed a Horcrux?"

Harry sighed and look towards fireplaces which spat out a witch or wizard every now and then. They stood in a secluded passage, so he decided to answer him. It was the first time they spoke about it for Morgan's sake.

"When I said that Hermione is like a sister to me?"

"Yeah."

"It's not that simple, Ron. Hermione and I were like brother and sister before you walked out of the tent. You broke her heart that day forcing to chose between me and you. And you broke any trust I had. Everything was ruined the moment you left. I and Hermione shared very unique moments, we realized that we have so much in common and that we love each other more than just friends."

Ron shook his head. "That doesn't explain why did you lie to me after I came back."

"The moment you left, I felt like you lost the right to call me a friend. I was angry and didn't feel obligated to tell you truth. Even if you saved my life... that changed absolutely nothing. It wasn't the first time you left me, when I needed friends the most. That's why, when you asked, I told you what I felt was right to tell. Otherwise you would get jealous and run away again. I needed every help I could get to kill Voldemort and by lying to you I got what I needed."

"So you just used me as a pawn."

"I wouldn't say it that way. But, yes, in some way, I used you for the Greater Good."

"You filthy bastard!" the redhead exclaimed. "I was..."

"Shut up!" Harry interrupted him angrily. "You of all people have no right to complain. Wasn't that the reason you and your family lied to me in first place when you had got into my compartment before our first year? Hasn't Dumbledore told you to befriend me for the Greater Good?"

Ron blanched and asked, "How do you know that?"

"That doesn't matter anymore," Harry said calmly. "I understand and can accept that. Besides, you was a friend, even if you was asked to be one."

He looked down, "I was. We had a good time in Hogwarts. Pity that we managed to ruin it. Maybe we repair it sometime in the future."

"I don't know, Ron. The things you did after the war..."

"I was angry and had every right to be angry."

"You had right to be angry, but to give that interview, calling Hermione..." Harry sighed. "It's not good crying over split potion. At least we could talk. I have to go. We won't probably see each other for next year, maybe two or three."

"Where're you going to?"

"Somewhere far away. Take care."

"Tell Hermione that I'm sorry. And... good luck, I think."

"Thanks, Ron. She'll appreciate it."

Harry nodded and moved to the Minister. Fortunately Daphne wasn't there, so he could relax for a bit as he waited for the Minister. The talk with Ron was exhausting and he was glad to have some tine to calm himself.

"Harry? Didn't expect to see you that soon again," he heard Kingsley's voice. "Did something happen?"

"No, everything is alright. I just came to let you know that we, I mean Hermione and I, won't be available for some time."

"Unavailable for some time?" the Minister asked.

"Yes, we'll travel far away to investigate certain thing for at least a year."

"Thank you for noticing me. It was bad enough to look for you few days ago. I would like to have more details, but I know that neither you nor Hermione will spill it out."

Harry smiled and nodded. "Right. Farewell, Kingsley."

With that he left the Ministry and breathed a sigh of relief. All goodbyes were said, so he could move on more serious things. He had to find at least fourteen wizards or witches for sacrifices. He had no clue as to why Hermione needed to bind souls to the pair of gold rings and nine silver ones. He trusted her, however, and she would eventually tell why he needed to kill. He knew, however, that they needed three souls for his magical version of Mass Relays. As for now, he had to find those who wouldn't be missed. Sure he would prefer to take souls of prisoners of the Azkaban, but, unfortunately, there were absolutely no way to do it. There were however enough Death Eaters who somehow bought the way out of the Azkaban. It was amazing how stupid was the wizarding world. He wondered if they would they ever learn.

"Ah well," he muttered, "Have a lot to do..."

* * *

><p>Daphne wasn't happy. At first it seemed like a good idea to fool Harry and Hermione by using her animagus form. She knew they would test her, but she wasn't one of the most talented witches for nothing, she used a potion which had bound her to the animal form for at least four weeks. Sure there were ways to transform her back, but she doubted that even Hermione would use them. During these weeks she planned to learn as much as possible about Hermione and Harry and to try to put a strain on their relationship. It wasn't that difficult, her animagus form was beautiful and she was sure Harry would like her. And then she would provoke Hermione. Of course it was a small thing, but it's always those small things that ruin relationships.<p>

The problem was that she got terrified by both Harry and Hermione. What she heard and saw was terrible. It reminded her so much of Voldemort and Death Eaters. They spoke so easy about sacrifices and the darkest magic. She wanted to run away, but Harry made sure she wouldn't be able to get away and she didn't want to make them suspicious. She could believe her ears and eyes when Harry after missing for two days returned with a handful of rings and said that a soul was bound to each of the rings. It meant that he killed at least a dozen people to do so. Sure those were scum, formed Death Eaters, but still... She had to get to the Ministry and inform them that the Saviour was becoming a new Dark Lord, but that wasn't possible! What they performed on that muggle girl was disgusting enough. She didn't know what they did, apparently turned into some magical creature. What would they do later? She was terrified at that thought, because she knew they could become even more dangerous than Voldemort.

Three days later she, however, managed to calm herself down. Neither Hermione nor Harry was actually evil. And the stories they told Eve were quite interesting. She didn't believe the story about Morgan le Fay at first, but when they spoke about her again with more details, Daphne couldn't help but to think over all those things. She found herself asking whether the Dark Arts were really evil. They had an actual proof that Morgan was the good one despite her being a Dark Witch. She met the ghost of Guinevere. Harry took Daphne in her animal form to the Queen. Her story was difficult to believe, but all evidences were there. King Arthur and his half-sister had good relations until Merlin somehow twisted him into believing that other races were inferior to humans and posed a threat to them. The queen wasn't happy with Arthur and tried to dissuade him from taking up arms against his sister, but he refused to listen and that led to the break up. That would later remembered by both magical and muggles as her betrayal, which resulted in the death of Guinevere, when she tried to escape the Camelot with a few loyal knights. The whole story made so much more sense than the official one.

So the Daphne decided to stay and learn more about them. Not that she had a choice, but at least she wasn't scared anymore. Some things she learnt were mind-blowing. In a few days she discovered more about muggles and their science than in her whole life and it fascinated her. She couldn't believe how ignorant she was, how prejudiced and bigoted the magical world was. It wasn't really her fault, she was simply brought up this way and never knew much about muggles. Daphne realized that if she weren't forced to stay with Harry and Hermione, she wouldn't learn all this, because she wouldn't listen, then run to the Ministry and send all aurors she could to arrest both Hermione and Harry. There was, however, something that still terrified her. Her hosts were going to leave the Earth very soon. She couldn't really comprehend what it meant. To leave Earth? How? And where? And what was that thing they called a starship? However, why would that matter, if she would be dragged on that bloody ship?

* * *

><p>"So, why do you need these rings?" Harry asked Hermione, when they reached their underground lab. She didn't want anyone, even the cat, to hear about the rings.<p>

She smiled and asked, "Have you ever read the Lord of the Rings?"

"Yes, why?" he replied confused.

"Well, there is some truth in that book," she continued. "I researched Horcruxes for last three years and discovered a few things. The first thing we have to avoid splitting our souls. It won't do any good to us. That was the main reason Voldemort had gone mad. I found another way to become immortal. The fact is, we don't need to split our souls to bind them to an object. A ring for example. The downside is that we would need to wear these rings all the time, otherwise we would become wraiths until someone finds our rings and put them on. Rings will always be found, since we enchant them to seek and to call for a suitable host. The longer one wears a ring the earlier we would be able to take over his or her body."

"Eh...Like Quirell?" Harry asked with disgust.

"Morgan's ass, no! Are you insane? Why would I suggest something like this?"

Harry laughed. "It was a joke, Hermione."

"Oh... It wasn't funny at all. Anyway, we would control the new body like our own, so don't worry about sticking out of the back of the head. Normally we wouldn't even need a sacrifice, but we need to enchant our rings so that they would compel people to put them on. We might give our rings some powers, like invisibility or a power to control the fire to make wearing these rings advantageous. To power these enchantments we need a soul bound to it," Hermione explained and took gold rings to hand. "These two are made of the adamantite. I have paid a fortune to goblins to get it. It's almost indestructible as it is. When we create Horcruxes out of it, there won't be much that can destroy them. A star or a black hole would still end our existence."

"Okay," nodded Harry, "Then why do we need these nine rings?"

"That has something to do with Arithmancy. I know you're not good at Arithmancy, so I explain. We need two rings, one for each. That's good though. Two is the number of the balance. This way, if we make it right, as long as one of us lives, the other won't become evil, but one can't live, if the other has died."

Harry sighed and muttered, "That sounds awfully like the Prophecy."

"It's Arithmancy and it's a kind of prophecy. Basically we're protecting the world from ourselves. Anyway, there are runes engraved on these rings. Runic numbers seven and three for Life and Rebirth. Finally Nine rings for the completeness."

"Why not just engrave nine as well?"

"The more runes we engrave the less stable the whole construct will become. The simpler the better. Besides, the Galaxy is big, we might need... followers. Nine rings will serve like the Dark Mark. They're made of mithril like the Sword of Griffindor. Not as good as adamantite, but I think it will still do the job. Rings will grant our followers immortality, but they wouldn't be able to betray us."

"Well, Hermione, you're starting to sound like Voldemort. It's kind of creepy," he said with a grin.

"Ah, shut up, Harry. As I was saying, we will enchant the nine rings so that our followers will obey us. They won't be mindless drones, but when we really want to enforce our will on them, they will comply. It's only a protection against abuse of power. By the way, I have a first follower in mind."

Harry looked surprised. "Eve?" he asked.

"Yes, they don't have to be magical. I read enough of her mind to know that she may become a great friend. She is a bit insane because of that incident with her mother turned into an inferius by Voldemort himself, but I don't have a problem with it. Do you?"

He shook his head and answered, "No, she isn't any more insane than we are."

* * *

><p>Eve was fascinated by the world of magic. Sure there were problems, but she couldn't imagine a world without problems. The girl was thrilled to meet the legendary queen and upset by the story she heard. Eve couldn't, however, wait anymore to leave the Earth. There was so much to see. At least she hoped so. But Hermione and Harry had some things to do before they could start the journey. At last it was the day. She was, however, surprised when Hermione handed her a silber ring, before they could step into the starship.<p>

"It's our gift," Hermione said. "But you should know, that it's enchanted."

"Enchanted?"

"Yes, it will grant you... a very long life and ability to communicate with us regardless of distance. But there is a catch. Once put on, it can't be removed."

That surprised Eve. "Why?" she asked.

"It's complicated," Hermione answered. "You would lose your human form."

She frowned. "Why should I wear it then?"

"If you die, we will be able to resurrect you using the ring. In another body, but still."

"I don't know," she whispered and sighed. Sure she was thrilled at the idea of being almost immortal, but she didn't want to die because somebody would remove the ring. "It's kind of scary."

"It's you decision, but we," she showed her hand with a ring, "Wear the same rings."

She hesitated for a minutes, but then decided, "Okay, I'll do it."

Hermione hid a smile and looked at Eve. The moment she put on the ring Eve felt pain and got some uncomfortable feeling like she had lost something important, but the next moment the pain was gone and she let out a sigh.

"That felt odd," she said.

"That means we did everything right," Hermione noted.

"You..."

Before Eve could say something, she was interrupted by Harry who loudly cursed at the cat, "CLIODNA, do me a favour please, stop scratching me! Otherwise I'll stun you. Really, what's wrong with getting on the ship? Oh! You dodget it. You're fast, but I'm faster! ARGH, feline! I said, stop scratching me!"

Seeing Harry fighting the cat, Hermione and Eve burst out laughing. She was really fast and managed to dodge his spells. In the end he levitated the cat using his wand and let out a victorious cry. With a smirk on his face he stepped on the ramp and got into the starship.

Hermione said smiling, "Let's go, or the cat will escape the ship again."

Eve nodded and followed the witch to the Pandora. "Maybe he should have left her," Eve whispered, "The cat seemed to be scared."

Hermione shook her head and told, "Well, cats don't like unfamiliar things. She'll be alright. I hope."

Soon they took off the Earth and left the atmosphere. That was quite fast and Eve was surprised that she felt practically nothing. But when they called her to look at the Earth through the window in an observation room. The Earth was... huge, magnificent. It was the most beautiful thing she ever saw. She could stare at the planet for days. She noticed that Cliodna calmed down too, being enthralled by the view, which was rather odd. Eve found herself asking how the cat could be this intelligent? Cliodna obviously understood the significance of the moment. But, well, she was on a magical spaceship. If someone would say her two weeks ago, that her life would change so much, she would have laughed. And now, she was cured, gained powerful abilities, got a ring which made her almost immortal... Why should the cat be unintelligent?

"I programmed the ship for the travel to Arcturus. We should go to the stasis chamber," Hermione said.

"Alright!" Harry exclaimed happily.

With that he took the cat. Cliodna, obviously, was still mad at him and bit his finger.

"Sorry, Cliodna, but you was unreasonable," he said kissing the cat and followed amused Hermione.

"You may have a competition, Hermione," Eve said grinning.

"With a cat?" Hermione snickered.

"Yeah," the girl nodded.

"See? It's fine here, you didn't have to be so scared," Harry said petting the cat.

The stasis chamber was small and looked a bit different than she imagined. Hermione didn't show her the chamber during previous tour and the girl was surprised that it was located in the greenhouse. She anticipated to see something like cryo-pods, but there were only chairs. Quite comfortable leather chairs. Eve sent an inquiring look at Hermione who shrugged and explained, "Otherwise plants would die. The whole room will be put under the stasis spell. These chairs are unnecessary, since we won't feel a thing. But just in case... take a seat please."

Eve nodded and took place beside Hermione. The witch asked, "Ready?".

"Let's go!" uttered Harry and the next moment everything went dark.

"What's wrong?" Eve asked, while Hermione and Harry launched glowing balls.

"I don't know," Hermione answered with a frown on her face. "The stasis spell has worked. And we should be in the Arcturus system. The problem is, there is absolutely no energy in the muggle energy cells, which is odd."

"Wait, I'll feed it," Harry said in a tense voice.

A few minutes later all systems came online again and the lights went on. Eve could hardly believe that they travelled thirty six light-years in a single moment. Well, they were travelling for some time, but she didn't felt a second.

"Let's go to the bridge," Hermione suggested. "I have to look at the data to understand what, for Morgan's sake, had happened."

Soon they came to the bridge. Hermione and Harry took their seats and Eve stood behind them. It was uncomfortable silence for everyone on board. Even the cat was nervously moving to and fro waging its tail.

"There is some man-made space station there," Harry broke the silence, "But..."

"NO!" Hermione exclaimed. "That can't be right!"

"What's wrong?" Harry and Eve asked at the same time seeing as Hermione paled.

"I'm sorry... I messed something up. I'm sorry," she whispered. "It wasn't supposed to be that way. I'm sorry..."

"Hermione, snap out of it. Explain," Harry said.

"There was massive energy loss while we were in stasis. Stasis field ate too much energy and engines were underpowered. That means we travelled at sub-light speed. I didn't consider it," she said weakly.

Harry sighed and closed his eyes. "How slow were we?"

"Less than a quarter of the speed of light. It's been hundred sixty six years. Relativistic effects were still at play, so add a few years on top. **Tempus**_,_" She said and the current date appeared in the air before her: '_17.09.2172_'.

After a second of silence Harry cracked in a mad laugher, which was interrupted by Hermione, who hit him with a stinging hex.

"What are you laughing at!" she exclaimed.

"I hate this spell," he said. "It's just hilarious, that you messed up this badly at the most important time."

"I didn't!"

"You did too."

Hermione argued, "No, I didn't! There is no way energy could be drained unless..."

"Unless what?" Harry asked, seeing that she has got an idea how did it happen.

"Unless there was a bloody animagus under stasis spell!" she stated, pointed her wand at the cat and cried, "**AVADA...**"

"Stop!" interrupted her Harry and took the wand from her. He threw his own spell at the cat, however, "**Stupefy.**"

For the first time Eve was scared. They both looked furious. They eyes were cold and they emanated anger. She wasn't that upset that they ended up hundred seventy one years in the future. She had nothing to lose, but she could understand that for Harry and Hermione that was quite a blow. When Harry laughed, Eve recognized it as a nervous, mad laugher. He was upset by Hermione's mistake at first until their anger was redirected at the cat.

"So, it's my fault," Harry said. "I should have put her under more tests."

"No," Hermione shook her head. "I ran some test too. Whoever she is, she fooled us both."

"That's why she didn't want to get inside the starship," he whispered.

"Probably she has bound herself to the animal form using some potion. I'll try to remote the potion out of her," she said and started to work on the cat with her wand.

"Do it," he nodded and turned to Eve. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she answered, "What does 'animagus' mean?"

"The cat is animagus. It's a witch in reality turned into a cat."

"Oh, that explains why the cat was that intelligent," Eve noted.

"Not really," Harry argued. "There are quite intelligent cats in the magical world. Hermione's..."

"It's working," Hermione interrupted him gaining their attention.

The cat began slowly transform and a few seconds later the trio looked at the beautiful naked woman. Both Hermione and Harry recognized her.

"Greengrass," said Harry .

* * *

><p>AN:

Well, we're in the future! The story will slowly diverge from the canon of Mass Effect Universe. I don't really understand why many fanfiction authors are so inclined to keep everything possible (mostly impossible, however) canon. Like killing Kaiden/Ashley on Virmire or forcing Anakin Skywalker to go all Sith Lord on the Galaxy for no reason, or keeping the Graveyard Scene for Voldemort's resurrection when there is no way it could be possible. What is the reason to recite a game, a movie or a book? Sure it's easier, but do we write here because it's easy? The Mass Effect, Star Wars, Harry Potter worlds are so detailed, that you could easily create something new. Something that is actually worth reading like _Masses to Masses by INf3ctioNZ_. Sure he tends to keep many things canon as well, but at the same time broadens the known universe in amazing way. Another example is _The Voyage of the Starship Hedwig by Ynyr_. I read it after I posted the first chapter of this story, when someone noted that I had similar ideas. And well, it's awesome! It's like reading a completely new fantasy/sci-fi story. It's quite dark and depressing, however :D. So, please, use your imagination to create wonderful works :D Wait, **why the hell did I write all this?**

**P.S.** Mass Effect 3 was an amazing game, but the last Mission was disappointing.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N:

_This chapter is even shorter than the second, but it's long enough. :D _

_There were many complains about the language. Well, English is my third lanugage and I would like someone to __**beta **__the text._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

When Daphne woke up, she knew she was very deep in trouble. She was surprised that Harry spared her life, when Hermione tried to kill her. She understood Hermione's anger and would probably do the same thing. It wasn't pleasant to learn that she travelled so many years to the future. The blond knew that there is no way to go back so far in time. They were stuck here in the future. Tears began to flow down her face. She lost her family in the end. Her sister would be ancient by now, assuming she was still alive. Her father and mother were lost to her, they were dead. Likely dead for a very long time. Was all this worth chasing after Harry Potter? No, it wasn't worth at all.

What bothered her even more, not only she managed to ruin her own life, she dragged Harry and Hermione along. Sure, it was Hermione's mistake, but she wouldn't do it if not for Daphne. An animagus was an unknown variable Hermione wasn't aware of. Would she be in her human form, the stasis spell would work properly. Sure she was dragged to the ship by Harry, but he thought she was a cat. Daphne made them believe she was a simple cat. What would they do to her?

"Aah," she heard Harry's voice, "You're awake at least. The stunning spell I had thrown at you, was badly overpowered. My mistake, but it worked out in the end, since I had time to calm down myself and Hermione in the mean time. Still she will probably want to skin certain feline alive when she wakes up."

"Are... Aren't you angry with me?" she managed to ask.

He took his time answer, "I am. But you see, I became very calculating man. Your death would be pointless. Besides, I realize that it wasn't your intention to mess up with the stasis charm. I'm kind of happy that you managed to fool us."

"What?" Daphne said.

"Hermione was getting too arrogant and overconfident. You made her realize that she's still a human. Alas for a terrible price I never wanted to pay."

"Don't know what to say," she sighed. "What do you plan to do to me?"

"You practically destroyed our plans." He paused and then continued, "I'm sure you overheard a lot of our conversations, so I doubt there is a need to explain you much. We hoped to restore the old magical world where many different species would coexist peacefully. You may not realize how much different the Old World was. So many precious things were lost. So many magical arts were forgotten, buried along with the birthplace of every magical kind, the source of magic, the Avalon. And... what now? I'm scared. I fear to find last bits of the magical world in ruins. It wasn't that difficult to calculate that elves would die out by this time. We wanted to save them. We worked so hard to make it possible. Hours and days of research..." He sighed. "And what about muggles? Did they make it? They could annihilate everything in some useless war by now and we weren't there to stop it thanks to you! Even if everything went well... the world has changed so much, that we might be unable to find a place for ourselves in it."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I never wanted that."

"Your words are useless now." Seeing her scared expression, he smiled weakly and reassured, "Don't be scared. I know, you heard a lot of... bad things, but we're not evil. We may have done ugly things, but for a good reason only. We don't care for means to reach our goals. As long as the civilizations of the Earth prevail, we're ready to make hard decisions to ensure it, because no other is ready to sacrifice that much. The vast majority doesn't realize how many people sacrifice not only their own lives, but humanity and moral principles, believes and hopes, beloved people and friends, every day, for others who live a peaceful life without worries. And what they do to thank them? They drag them into courts and lock behind the bars for their 'crimes'. The magical world is the most hypocritical one. They choose their 'Saviour' and hope that he will sacrifice everything for their good, but do not move a toe to help him! And then, these fools don't even try to change! But enough of it. It doesn't matter. Right now, your life is much more valuable than ever. We may be the last magicals, or worse, the last humans."

The prospect of being one of the last humans terrified her. "Tha...that's impossible," she choked.

Harry looked at her for a minute and said, "Let's drop assumptions. Even if it's not this way, you are still most likely the only person we know and familiar with. We would need all help we can get. So, ready to help?"

She was relieved. "How?"

"Hermione is sleeping and Eve isn't magical. I need some help to install the Gate to the Earth," he answered.

"It's the least I can do."

He nodded and invited her to come along. She didn't hesitate and followed him. For the first time she could receive an explanation about what was happening, where they were and what for Merlin's beard was the ship she was on. She couldn't suppress these questions anymore.

"Harry?" she asked, "I don't really understand where we are and... well, I understand nothing at all. Could you explain, please?"

He choked and laughed despite dreadfulness of their situation. "Ah, yes, you're pureblood and probably have no clue about muggles." He paused and she noticed a frown forming on his face. "Well, that's awkward. How should I explain it when your knowledge of muggle science is on par with a muggle toddler? Don't be insulted, it's just a fact."

"I'm not insulted at all," she said. "I saw all those muggle devices in your house. They're like magic for a muggle."

He smiled and nodded pleased with her words. "Purebloods are clueless, but the universe is immense. Imagine a broom. You may think they're fast, but you would need hundreds of millions years to reach this location. Our starship can reach it within a year. You may think it's fast, but it's not."

"So, where are we? You mentioned the Arcturus, but I don't understand..."

"What do you know about stars? I bet nothing. Our sun is a star. The Arcturus is just the same as the Sun, only far, far away."

She blinked. "Whoa, wait. If it's so far, how come we see it?"

"Why not? The Arcturus is quite bright and the outer space is almost empty. But that's not that important. Let me continue. Like I said, the distance between the Arcturus and the Earth isn't that big. The Arcturus is one of the nearest stars in fact. And there are dozens, hundreds of billions stars in the galaxy."

"What's the galaxy?" Daphne asked.

He opened the door to the airlock and dragged her in, then explained, "Difficult to explain. Let's say, there are hundreds of billions galaxies, each of them contains billions of stars and planets like the Earth."

"Can't imagine it."

"Let's talk about it later. I'll draw it for you to make it simpler to understand." He pointed at the suit and said, "Please, put it on."

She looked at it and asked, "Why?"

"Because you'll die without one."

She paled and did as he said. Harry checked the suit, nodded and pushed some button on the wall. The next moment the wall before her vanished and her eyes widened at the sight of a planet so much like the Earth, but at the same time so much different. It was cold, grey-white with a tinge of light-blue. It was so terrifying, that she could barely breathe, but at the same time... it was so beautiful.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" he heard Harry asking.

"Y-yes, it's beautiful. Wh-what is it?"

"It's a planet, like the Earth. There is no life here though. Take my hand," he said, standing on the brink of emptiness.

She nodded, neared him and took his hand. She could see him smile under his helmet. The next moment he embraced her and before she could react pushed off from the floor into the nothingness. She screamed in panic.

"Don't worry, we're perfectly safe."

She managed to calm down, but breathed hard still. "Why it's so odd here? It's like I'm in water, but at the same time it's different. It feels so light and free..."

"That's zero gravity for you," he snickered.

"Zero gravity?"

"Weightlessness."

"But I have weight."

Harry had an urge to facepalm, but it was quite difficult to do, so he just said, "I'll explain it later. You should be happy you're in this suit, otherwise you would feel much worse." He looked around and added, "I believe we're far enough." The next moment he used some unfamiliar spell. Then he enlarged a small chest and opened it."Take these parts from the chest and connect them like this," he said and demonstrated how to connect parts together.

She nodded and began to help Harry constructing the Gate. "How does this suit work? It seems to move on its own," asked Daphne.

"You didn't realize yet? Wouldn't work if you were a muggle. It follows your thoughts," he explained, "It would be difficult to move here otherwise."

"The Gate will be large," she noted.

"Yeah, hundred metres in radius," he replied. "We have a lot of work to do."

"Won't it fall there?" she asked pointing at the planet.

"No, it's charmed to stay on the orbit."

"May I ask something about the ship?"

"Sure," he replied.

"How have you built it?"

"It's not that difficult, actually. We stole needed materials from muggles and then bent to right forms using transfiguration..." and so he began to explain the construction of the ship while they worked on the Gate.

Three hours later Harry connected the last segment that contained a soul, activated the Gate and hid it from muggles.

On the way to the ship, Daphne decided to ask, "Is Hermione alright? "

"Why do you ask?"

"It's just strange that she is sleeping at time like this."

"She was very distraught. I gave her a dreamless sleep potion."

"Will she be fine?"

"Yes," he muttered, "Don't worry. She is a strong girl."

"You don't seem to be confident saying that."

"She is unstable sometimes... We went through a lot during the war, Daphne," he said abrupt. "Unlike cowards like you."

"I couldn't, I had my family to..."

"What? Family? Right, you had to worry about your family," he said bitterly, "And that orphaned boy can go and die, since he has no one left."

She blanched, when she realized her mistake and tried to correct it, "I didn't mean it like this."

Harry didn't notice it and continued, "Do you know what Hermione did? She obliviated her own mother and father to help me. She made them forget all about her and go to Australia. Do you realize how painful it was for her to say them that she is their daughter and see their disbelieving looks? Do you know how it felt when they rejected her?"

It was a hard blow for her. She knew that she was a coward, but still to hear it like this was painful. Would she be able to do the same? What was so different about Hermione? What made her so strong? Daphne shook her head: how stupid could she be to hope to compete with Hermione.

"I'm sorry," she choked through tears.

"I'm sorry too. Shouldn't lose my tempter like this."

For the next minutes they stayed silent. Soon they reached the airlock and Harry resealed the room. He pressed a button and signalled her to take off the suit. Daphne didn't expect it, but he invited her to the bridge. Eve waited for them already.

"So, it's because of you we ended up in the future," she said to Daphne.

"Sorry," the witch winced.

"I don't mind," Ever replied.

"Really?" Daphne asked, surprised.

The girl didn't seem to be inclined to explain. "Yeah. I'm Eve Edison, by the way."

"Daphne Greengrass."

"Nice to meet you," Eve said cheerfully. "Can you transform into a cat?"

Daphne frowned and said, "I think I had enough of being a cat."

"When did you learn it?" Harry asked curiously thinking of his father.

"In Hogwarts, the third year," she answered. "Only my sister was aware of it."

"Amazing." Harry gave out a sigh and uttered, "Sadly I didn't inherit the trait from my father."

"Oh, yes..." she nodded. "What animal was he again?"

"A stag."

"Like your _Patronus_," she noted.

"Oh, you know my Patronus?" he asked arching his eyebrow.

"But of course I know! It's... legendary."

"Care to explain what are you speaking about?" Eve asked losing her patience.

"**Expecto Patronum,**" Harry almost whispered creating ghosty figure of a stag. "It's a powerful charm to repel many dark creatures," he explained.

"So beautiful," Eve said trying to touch it. "Why is his Patronus legendary?"

"It's a very difficult charm," Daphne explained. "He managed to learn an advanced version in the third year and teach it to bunch of other children in the fifth. Besides he repelled a horde of very dangerous dark creatures with it to save his Godfather."

"Always thought that no one knew about the second part," he said thoughtfully.

"It wasn't a common knowledge, but either way only few things in Hogwarts managed to escape my notice."

"Interesting," he said looking at her, "How much do you know about that day?"

"Everything," she said. "Even the time travel."

Harry blinked. "What? How do you know about that?"

"Did you look for a white cat when you sneaked around the castle and spoke with your friends?" she asked with a smile.

He slapped his forehead and sighed. "Rather foolish mistake, isn't it?" he questioned.

"You couldn't know," Daphne said with a shrug.

He snorted. "Constant vigilance!"

"Hey, Harry, do you plan to find out who these aliens are?" asked Eve suddenly.

"The space station? No, not until we return to the Earth. We don't want to cause some kind of diplomatic incident accidently." He looked down and said, "It seems I unconsciously keep stalling the jump to the Earth by speaking with you." He took a seat and snickered, "Our extra long journey was kind of short."

"How can you joke in this situation?" Daphne asked.

Harry turned to look at her and narrowed his eyes. "Would you prefer me to skin you alive?"

"N-no," she replied.

"Then don't complain," he said.

A few minutes later the Pandore came out of the Sol Gate and headed to the third planet of the system. Soon Harry could let out a sigh of relief, when he received readings that muggles didn't kill themselves off and were space fairing race. He was, however, very surprised to find massive activity on the Earth orbit. He hoped their ship had enough protections to be unnoticed. They were fortunate; the ship reached the surface without problems.

"So, what's out there?" Eve asked.

"Ah, I've forgot about you," Harry said. "Humans are space fairing now."

"How advanced are they?"

"Don't know yet, but from the data I've got, they should be pretty advanced."

"What about magicals?" Daphne asked nervously.

"No idea," he shrugged. "But let's..."

"Now, give me a reason to not kill you right now," he heard Hermione's voice and turned around to see her glaring at pale Daphne.

"I... I'm sorry," the blond witch said.

"Hermione," Harry said calmly, "Calm down, please. Take a deep breath..."

"You don't have to tell me how to breathe. I'm not giving a birth, Harry," Hermione snapped.

"Huh?" He shook his head and said, "Let's talk about your babies later. I'd rather have her helping us than dead and useless."

His girlfriend glared at him and let out a sigh. "This isn't over. What's the situation?"

"We're back on Earth in the old storehouse under fidelius charm. Muggles are space fairing. I received enough information to conclude that they use Mass Relays. The situation in the magical world is still unknown," he stated.

"Let's find it out then," she suggested. "I and _Greengrass_ will go to the Diagon Alley, while you and Eve find more about the muggle world."

"No," Harry shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I'd rather keep you and Daphne separate for now, Mione."

"I won't kill her, Harry," she said with a maniacal grin.

"Yeah, just torture into insanity. I don't want that, okay?"

"You and your perverted nature again," she muttered under her breath, then gave Daphne a look that could probably kill a lesser being and hissed, "One wrong move and, I swear, it will be the last day of your pathetic life, Greengrass."

Daphne swallowed hard and nodded, "I understand."

"Good," Hermione said, "Then I and Eve will go investigate the muggle world."

Soon Harry and Daphne apparated to London and moved to the Leaky Couldron. It was stunning how different the muggle London was. Flying cars, oddly-dressed people, beautiful skyscrapers. It was mind-blowing, but it was still familiar: old buildings were still there. The pair was going to be very careful approaching the magical world. Neither knew what could have changed during those years. To their relief the Leaky Cauldron was still there. Harry moved first and opened the door. It looked nothing like the old pub. Broken tables, filth and awful reek.

"Foreigners?" an old and shady-looking barman asked. "Wha' d'you wan'?"

"He's nice, isn't he?" Harry whispered to Daphne and answered loudly, "We're just visiting the Diagon Alley."

"Move 'en."

They nodded and preceded to the Diagon Alley, confused why he called them foreigners. The sight of once popular Alley stunned them. Like the Leaky Cauldron it was almost deserted. The most shops were closed, those which were still open didn't have much to offer. There were only two dozen books in the only book shop. The Olivanders wand shop wasn't there at all. The only building that was still the same was Gringotts, but... it was closed. The magical world was backward, but this was just ridiculous. It seemed they were back to the middle ages.

"What happened here?" the two asked simultaneously.

At the same time Hermione and Eve walked through the London streets. Flying cars were incredible, like in sci-fi movies. However, everything felt strange. Hermione looked around and froze, when she saw a blue-skinned obviously female alien in a company of another strange being that had... carapace?

"Awesome," Eve muttered looking at the duo of aliens.

"I think they're tourists," Hermione said, when she saw them making pictures using some kind of holographic device. "Wait, I'll try legilimency on her."

"What if it won't work on them?" Eve asked worryingly.

"It's magic. Magic has nothing to do with biology or technology. The only thing that matters is intent," she explained. "**Legilimens!**"

The next moment blue-skinned alien gasped and fell to her knees clutching her head crying in pain. The other alien embraced her and asked something. Eve started and looked at Hermione clenched her teeth. A few seconds later Hermione shook her head and closed eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Eve questioned.

"No, but she had some sort of defence against mind arts. Nothing serious for a master of mind arts like me though. However, I took too much information from her and have headaches now. Didn't exactly expect her to be seven hundred years old."

"Seven hundred... years?" the raven-haired girl repeated.

"Yeah," she nodded and clutched her head, "The bloody headache is killing me. Now I understand how Harry felt."

Eve looked back at the blue-skinned alien, which fell to the ground, still crying in obviously horrible pain.

"Is she alright?" Eve asked.

"Almost fried her brain," Hermione shrugged, "She'll need a few days of rest, but she should be alright."

"And you?"

"I'm fine. Like I said, it's just a headache from information overload."

"Did you learn something interesting?"

"Yeah, quite a few languages... it seems. I need a few minutes to sort everything out," she said and pointed at a building, "Wait here. I don't think you can help me right now. I have to steal some things from that shopping centre. If you want, talk to random people here to learn something useful. Should any problem arise, touch the ring and call for me."

"Like this?" asked Eve and touched the ring and whispered the witch's name.

"Yes, I heard your call and while you wear the ring I can instantly locate you."

Eve nodded and sighed. Her life was moving so fast that she could barely follow. She wondered if she could continue her education here in this time. Eve could bet that so much has changed that ten years old kids would know more than she. The girl frowned when realized that she had so much to learn about this new world to live comfortable. Her best bet was to stick with Harry and Hermione. They had similar problems, but they had magic to help them. Well, she had time to learn something new.

About an hour later Hermione appeared out of thin air and said startling the girl, "Sorry, had more things to take than I anticipated."

"Should we return?" Eve asked.

"Yes, there are tons of information to share with you and Harry. Had you some luck too?"

"No, not really. Some guys tried to put their moves on me, but I wasn't in a mood. Another girl asked where I got this 'cool vintage' outfit."

Hermione managed to smile and said, "I've got some clothes appropriate for this time, by the way. Take my hand, I'll apparate us to our house."

Thirty minutes later the four sat in the ship's conference room. Hermione would prefer the living room of their house, but sadly it wasn't in a good state after seventeen dozen years.

"What have you learned, Harry?" Hermione asked.

He sighed and said, "Believe me or not, but the magical world is even more backward than ever."

"What? How did that happen?" she asked. Normally the progress was slow, but it was still there.

"A war," he said with a shrug.

"Pureblood supremacist again?"

"Not really, just a power greedy maniacs," he said and shook his head in defeat. "It's like all our sacrifices were in vain and..."

"Don't say that, Harry," interjected Hermione.

"Yeah... There was a new Dark Lord. Of course he was called the most terrible one, but these idiots say that about every new powerful dark wizard. He was a lot like Grindelwald and at some point the conflict became somewhat international. That's when everything went downhill. Almost all schools, including the Hogwarts, were destroyed, ninety percent of magical population killed and the most of the knowledge lost. It's back to the old apprenticeship system again."

"Oh, Morgan." Hermione turned to Greengrass and pointed a finger at her, "It's your bloody fault. Because of you, we weren't present to prevent it."

Daphne frowned, biting her lips to stay silent. When she and Harry went to the magical world, Daphne asked him to visit her ancestral manor to find out about her family. She knew that everyone was dead, but perhaps she could find descendants alive. Harry agreed, but as soon as they were at the village where her manor was located, Daphne wished they wouldn't go there. She found her manor in ruins and graves of her entire family nearby. Gravestones said that they died on the same day. Fifth September, 2021. It was difficult to hear that it was her fault, but she managed to calm down.

"But that's not the worst part of my story," Harry said.

"What could be possible worse, Harry?" The bushy-haired witch asked.

"During the war both sides of the conflict began to notice that it was getting more and more difficult to maintain the Statue of the Wizarding Secrecy. The technology became a problem and obviously they choose an easy solution. They distanced from the muggle world even further and began to bind magic of muggleborns before they could produce any accidents." Harry paused, looked at Hermione and added, "Yes, Hermione, even muggleborns agreed that it was for the best. Anyway, current wizards don't know a thing about healing magic. Hygiene is a mystery for them. Even wands are rare, since the knowledge of wand crafting has been lost. Consequently, wizard's life expectance is just about forty years now. You know what that means."

Hermione paled and inquired, "When was the war?"

"January, 2017," he answered. "Until May, 2026."

"A century and a half..." she whispered, "Seven generations without a new Seed."

"What does that means?" asked Daphne breaking into their conversation.

Harry said and turned to Daphne. "Remember when I told you about the Avalon, the source of the magic? It's still there, somewhere, but no one knows. It was lost during the war between Morgan and Merlin. The World Tree..."

"But that's a fairytale," Daphne muttered confused.

"No, it was a common knowledge back then. You may ask the Queen or Helene Ravenclaw later, if they are still around. The second, however, is difficult to talk," Harry suggested. "The World Tree gives us magic. Many muggleborns tried to explain their magic by distant ancestry, but that's wrong in reality. They just happened to get a Seed of the World Tree in first weeks after their birth. It's the main reason why there are so many magical people in the Britain and Europe. The Avalon is somewhere near the British Isle."

"A chance to get a Seed," he continued, "Is quite small, almost non-existent. And if you consider how many muggles there are compared to magicals, it's obviously that relatively small amount of magicals receive a Seed. Better said, no one. Fortunately the Seed's gift is hereditary. However, if the family stays pureblood, the magic will grow weaker, the amount of squib children will rise and in the end the magic of the family vanishes. That's why many purebloods thought that muggleborns were stealing their magic. The irony is, the magical world needs muggleborns to keep magic. By keeping muggleborns away, they sentenced themselves to death."

"There are only about two hundred magical humans in the world. No one is really worth our attention. Well, Daphne seems to disagree, but..."

"Don't care," Hermione waved.

"They're too weak and totally uneducated. Give them another fifty years and there won't be anyone left. What is important, they can't bind magic of every muggleborn anymore. There are too few wizards left which are able to use mind arts. Either we do something or the muggle world will know about magic sooner or later."

"There is however one, but very good news," he said with a smile, "Elves are still alive. Due to the lesser amount of wizards, the Drain of the Curse is acceptable. They're perfectly stable. Dragons on the other hand, are extinct now. That's all for now."

"If not for certain stupid girl..." began angrily Hermione looking at Daphne.

Daphne was patient but she couldn't hold it anymore.

"How is that my fault? It's your bloody fault! You have put the stasis charm under greater priority than everything else. What kind of idiot would do a mistake like this?" she cried out before realizing what she was saying and to whom.

The next moment she saw a bright red bolt speeding towards her. She didn't have her wand and it was way too late to dodge. However, before the Cruciatus curse could slam into her, Harry created a shield, which exploded and sent him flying into a wall. She blanched and rushed to him, hoping that he was alright.

She was relieved when he groaned, "Hermione, I swear, you could torture a dragon to death with it."

The said witch, however, whispered, "I'm sorry," and fled from the room.

"Well done, Daphne," he scowled. "Next time you decide to do something this stupid, do me a favour, go and kill yourself. Really, Daphne, how can someone so brilliant like you be so stupid?"

"I'm sorry," she said crying, "I just saw red, because she kept accusing me that death of my family was my fault."

"Hey, are you alright?" Eve asked bewildered by what occurred before her.

"I'm fine," Harry answered, "Stay here with her, I have to talk to Hermione."

He sighed and shook his head. The situation was getting troublesome. He walked out of the room and followed Hermione to the library. The ship had rather big library and he knew, that his girlfriend always went to the library when she was upset. Harry found her sitting on the floor and crying. He knelt before her and hugged. Hermione embraced him forcibly, and sobbed.

"It's alright, Hermione," he said.

"It's not! I nearly hit you with a powerful Cruciatus. What a monster am I?"

"Don't say that. You're not a monster. You have just lost your temper. It's Daphne being stupid."

"But she is bloody right, I should have known better than..."

"Hermione it was a freak accident. No one is at fault. You couldn't know that there was an animagus on board. Besides everyone makes mistakes."

"I'm useless..."

"Don't say that, Mione," he kissed her.

"But I am useless. I ruined everything."

"It was not your fault. Don't give up, please. Nothing is lost, we can still do everything we wanted."

She sobbed and asked, "Why did you protect her?" She turned her gaze upon his eyes and continued, "Do you like her? She is so much more beautiful than me, isn't she? And you like women like her."

Well, that was one of those questions he really hated. Of course Daphne was much more beautiful than Hermione. It's just obvious, Daphne could be a very successful supermodel in the muggle world. Hermione's looks wasn't one of her strengths. Sure she was cute, but still average. She didn't have a model's body, her legs were too short, she had a bit too much in the waist and her breast and bum could be bigger. But Harry liked her the way she was. He knew that even most beautiful things bleak in time. He loved Hermione's mind and strength. Not the physical one, but her willpower. Who else would stick during the war with him aside her? Who would sacrifice so much? He loved her magical prowess and endless knowledge. But he loved her piercing eyes the most.

And these eyes were the problem. When she learned the mind arts, he realized that her abilities in this part of magic were unrivalled. She could simply look in a forty-years-old man's eyes and a few seconds later he would honestly believe that he was a twelve-years-old girl. Sure it would take a lot of her and it was preferable to use a wand, but the point was, she could do it. She could read minds like books and his, for a better word, pathetic occlumency shields were useless against these eyes of her. She couldn't read his thoughts. Well, unless she wasn't trying to. But he couldn't lie to her, her eyes were seeking for a sign of lie right now. She would recognize a lie and that would cause mistrust. Mistrust leads to fear, fear leads to pain, and pain would ruin their relationships. That's why he chose to say the truth, but only half of it.

"You're beautiful woman, Hermione and I love you. Of all women in the world I would always choose you."

She smiled through tears, but a moment later snorted, "And you wouldn't choose Sharon Stone over me?"

"Whoa, Hermione, she is like, what, twenty years older!"

Hermione snickered. "Didn't stop you from drooling over her."

"You managed to utterly destroy the moment..." he said with a sigh.

"Not my fault that you're such a creepy pervert that likes older women..."

He groaned, "I hate you, Mione. Besides even if she were alive, she would be ancient by now."

"You know, I'm ancient too, almost two hundred years old," she teased.

"You look pretty good for an ancient."

"You're not bad yourself," she laughed and shook her head, "Let's go back, we have still much to talk about. I'm sorry for that curse."

"Don't worry about it," he said, "Let's go."

When they returned, Daphne immediately said, "I'm sorry, Hermione. I didn't mean it."

Hermione glared at her and said, "Be silent next time."

"Please, stop bickering, you two," Harry said. "We have important things to discuss."

"Well," Hermione said, "The hundred fifty years were good for the muggle world. They discovered Martian ruins, activated the Mass Relay and contacted other civilizations. There was a brief First Contact war, but nothing serious. The space station we have seen at the Arcturus, is a human one."

"Wait, Hermione," Harry interrupted her, "What other civilizations?"

"Many. Asari, Turians, Salarians, Krogan, Hanar, Batarians and many others. Asari are the most interesting. They're natural biotics..."

"Biotics?"

"Well, that's a term humans use for those with powers like Eve's. I told you that humans can gain those powers if they eat or inhale Element Zero dust, but they aren't that powerful without amplifying implants. Besides their powers aren't hereditary. Unlike Eve and asari. Asari can use their powers to 'meld'... Wonder if Eve can too..."

"Hermione," Harry interrupted, "You're babbling. Besides, I think you're getting away from the subject."

"Yes," she sighed. "Sorry. Let's see... I'll explain the current situation. Humanity is one of so called Citadel races. That means that they accept the authority of the Citadel Council. The Citadel is a massive space station built by Protheans, now extinct race. No one knows why they have died out, but that's not important right now. Citadel Council consists of only three members and humans don't have their Councillor. Like many other Citadel races humans have their embassy on the station."

"So... the galaxy is ruled by three councillors?" Harry asked.

"No, not really. Councillors do answer to some degree to their governments. Asari Republics, Turian Hierarchy and Salarian Union. Besides they don't really have any power over other races. It's just... disadvantageous to go against their wishes. As long as you stick to the letter of their laws you may do as you wish."

"Okay," he nodded. "I think I understand. It's a totally unpractical and useless government body."

Hermione snorted and agreed, "Yeah, something like this."

"Let's decide what we do next," Harry suggested.

"We need more people," Hermione said immediately. "We can't hope to be everywhere and do everything alone. Can't say I'm happy, but," she paused glaring at the blond witch, "Greengrass could be helpful."

"She can," Harry nodded. "She has a talent."

"To ruin everything," Hermione muttered for no one else to hear.

"I will help," Daphne said blushing at his words.

"I as well," Eve seconded.

Hermione hesitated for a moment and then threw one of the nine rings to Daphne.

"You will wear it."

"I heard you talking about it and I won't wear it!" Daphne protested.

"It's a dangerous world here and we can't afford to lose our lives," Hermione noted.

"I advise you to wear it, Daphne. There is nothing wrong with it," Harry assured.

"No, I won't split my soul. Better die than that."

"What?" Eve exclaimed.

"Ah calm down, Daphne, Eve," Harry said with a sigh. "The ring doesn't split your soul. That's not possible; you would need to kill in order to split your soul. This ring only binds your soul to it. And I can give you a wizard's oath that it's truth."

"But I thought it would create a Horcrux," she uttered confused.

"Not really. It's a similar construct, but different at the same time. Not that dark, by the way. We don't have to split our souls, but have to wear them all the time."

"What happens if someone kills a wearer?" Daphne asked. "And what happens when a wearer takes it off?"

"If a wearer dies, his or her ring will find somebody who would put it on. Then the wearer takes over the new body."

"Wow!" Eve exclaimed. "So if I take the ring off and give it to someone, I would swap bodies?"

"You sound enthusiastic," Daphne said with a frown.

"Why wouldn't I?" Eve inquired. "It's awesome!" There was a few seconds of silence. Eve looked around being confused by looks the other three were giving her, and asked, "What?"

"Well, nothing, I guess," Hermione said.

"To answer your question, Eve, yes, you would. The problem is you would need someone to help you, because as soon as the ring is off your finger, you become a wraith." Harry said. "Now, Daphne, what's your decision?"

Persuading Daphne to wear a ring was very difficult. She was very reluctant to do something with her soul, but there was no way Hermione would let Greengrass go without a ring. She didn't trust her. Sure, Daphne could be obliviated, but Harry did have a point. The blond was a very talented witch and would be helpful. Thankfully Daphne gave in to their arguments and they could move on to other questions. The resulting discussion took much longer than both Harry and Hermione anticipated, they were, however very pleased with results.

"So, let me read the list," Daphne said and looked at Harry. When he smiled at her, causing Hermione to frown, she continued, "The list is quite long."

_- We search for a small human colony with no more than two hundred people, take over and ward it, modify memories of muggles, confound them to keep us secret._

_- With the first step done, we set up our new home, build training facilities._

_- There is no way to create wands with dragon heartstring and unicorn hairs, so we have to develop new tools instead of traditional wands._

_- Every month we scan the Earth for new muggleborns. We take them and bring to our colony._

_- We look up at means to cure elves ._

_- We select the best students and give them rings. Additionally we may look at the muggle world for promising ring candidates. The selected people will be your lieutenants._

_- We search for other useful and high-ranking people who would work for us._

_- As soon as we have at least two hundred trained wizards and witches we bring them to Earth to form a new magical world._

_- Then we search for the Avalon._

_Furthermore, we…_

_- create more human biotics like Eve to join us,_

_- manipulate governments in the right direction,_

_- investigate the extinction of the Protheans to defend our civilizations from the same threat,_

_- build army and fleet if there is a serious threat,_

_- search for remains of the magical knowledge unknown to us and useful._

"That's all we have," Daphne finished.

"Good. We'll start with it," Harry began but was interrupted by Hermione.

"After we travel around the galaxy for the Morgan's sake!" Hermione exclaimed.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry, chapters will be shorter from now on. It seems that I don't have enough time to write long chapters. Shorter chapters give me much more room. It's easier to not rush the story too. However, chapters will be longer than 3000 words. That's for sure._

**Chapter 4**

The Citadel. One could call it the capital of the Milky Way and would probably be right. There was however a second capital, the Omega. It was dirty, full of criminal gangs and mercenary groups, narcotic and weapon dealers centuries old station. There weren't many things you couldn't get on Omega, but the one thing didn't exist there for sure: peace. However, it wasn't a major problem for a group of four travellers which set the course on the said station. They sat on the bridge of their starship and looked through a viewing port at the massive Mass Relay, waiting for a woman in the pilot chair to finish her adjustments needed for the travel through the Mass Relay.

"Hey, Harry could you tell me more about the Avalon?" a raven-haired girl asked.

Harry took his time to answer, "Well, what do you want to know?"

Eve shrugged, "Something. You said that it is the source of magic. And the World Tree, how does it look like?"

"Well, ironically muggles know more about it than the magical folk. It always was sort of restricted even for wizards, but Merlin tried to ensure that wizards wouldn't know about the World Tree and the Avalon, but he still missed some muggle stories. Muggles could never see or access the Tree, but they listened to wizards and wrote stories about it. I have to warn you, that I might be wrong, since I didn't see the Tree myself. Have you read about Norse mythology?" he asked catching Daphne's attention.

"Not much," she admitted, "But I know enough about it."

"Good. It's crude and there are a lot of funny things in it, but they've got the important thing right. It says that there are many worlds connected via Yggdrasil, the World Tree. There are, in fact, something like a world on that Tree, but not in the way the mythology describes it. According to the mythology the Midgard is the world where we, humans, live. In reality it's the Earth and the World Tree has its roots on the Earth. I'm not sure, but it has to be about three-four kilometers tall."

"Whoa! There would be a huge shadow! And it would break under its own weight, and…" Eve began to argue.

Harry smirked and interrupted her, "Hold your hyppogryphs, Eve. It's magic. Remember?"

She sighed. "Oh, yeah. Magic."

"Now, remember Asgard, the world of gods? In reality it's the Avalon... well, you may call it Asgard, since the world had many names actually. Anyway I'm not sure if there are any gods. If the World Tree were visible and accessible while you were on the plane looking through a window at the Yggdrasil, you would see an enormous tree with a miniature flat world in the crone. It wouldn't look large, but it is actually quite big. It's just like the greenhouse on this ship. Bigger on the inside than outside."

Hermione laughed, turned around and said, "You know all those paintings with whales, turtles and elephants, right? Non-magical people tried so hard to describe the Avalon in their writings, but failed miserably. What's even funnier is how others didn't understand that and thought it was a good idea to put some animals instead of the Tree there."

"Yeah," Harry smiled. "The fact is, very few educated humans ever believed that the Earth was flat. Even four thousand years ago they knew that the Earth was spherical. It's too easy to prove. And there were wizards who could show it. We always had means to fly. Now mostly brooms, but earlier hyppogryphs, winged horses, magical airplanes in Ancient Egypt, self-transfiguration to get wings… that's, probably, how people got an idea of winged angels. All those texts about flat world originally described the Avalon, since it really is flat."

"Seems like wizards were more advanced back then," Eve said thoughtfully.

Harry sighed and nodded. He wanted to say something, but Hermione interrupted him, "The ship is ready. We will jump through the Relay in five seconds."

"Hope we won't end up thousand years in the future," Harry muttered.

"Shut up, Harry," Hermione groaned.

"But…" he was interrupted by transition. "What the Crumple-Horned Snorkack was that?"

"That was a jump," Hermione explained.

"What kind of idiot created this thing? Even my Gates work better and I needed just a few days to develop them. It felt almost like apparation for Morgan's sake."

"Calm down, Harry. You wouldn't create Gates if not for the Relays."

"Sure I would!" he argued. "Whatever. I hope we aren't in the future."

Hermione didn't answer for a moment and then exclaimed in panic, "We're thousand years in the future!"

"What?!"

"That was a joke," Hermione deadpanned.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed with relief. The other two girls sighed too: Daphne in relief, Eve in disappointment. "That wasn't funny at all," he said.

"Could you charm their rings while we're on the way to the Omega?" Hermione asked.

"Can I do it myself?" Daphne asked.

"No, we created the rings so that only I and Harry can change charms," Hermione answered. "Besides you don't know the right shield charm."

"Won't a simple Protego be enough?"

"No," Harry replied, "In fact, it haven't stood a chance against muggle weapons back then in our time. It wasn't designed to protect from kinetic impacts. We modified the spell and developed two enchantments. One protects from physical objects, and the other protects you from almost everything. The first one is more powerful but isn't that useful against toxic gases or radiation for example...

"What's a radiation?" the blond asked.

He sighed and turned to his girlfriend. "Hermione I think you should implant some information in her head. It's like talking to a child."

"Brilliant idea, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed and grinned madly.

"No way I agree to that!" Daphne exclaimed. "She'll mess up everything in my head."

"Yes," Harry said thoughtfully.

"What?"

He shook his head and explained, "I mean that Hermione would probably do something mischievous if given a chance and you're right to be against it."

"You killjoy, Harry," Hermione huffed.

He smiled and asked, "Eve, tutor her in general knowledge, please?"

"Yeah, sure," the biotic answered.

"Thanks," Daphne muttered with a blush, embarrassed.

"Good," he nodded. "Anyway, you can't cast these spells like Protego, they're way too power-demanding, no wand would be able to do it, but your rings have own… power sources and so can handle the enchantments."

"By the way," said Hermione suddenly, "Harry, you're a genius. Eve, I could transfer you the knowledge of that asari. She was a very powerful biotic, I'm sure it would be useful for you. Your brain won't be able to hold her memories, but I'll implant only her biotic skills. If you trust me, of course."

"You saved me," Eve said. "Of course I trust you. Besides, it's exciting! If I'll be able to use it properly I'm ready to do what I must."

"Let's go to the training room then."

Eve nodded and followed the witch out of the cockpit. Harry considered following them for a minute, but decided to stay in the pilot chair just in case. Daphne didn't move from her place either.

"Can she really do it?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered. "If it comes to the mind arts she can almost everything. Give me your hand, please."

"Why?" she asked and gave him his right hand.

"The ring hand," he added.

"Oh." She complied and watched him enchanting her ring. "How did you create this enchantment?"

"It wasn't that difficult," he said continuing his work, "Almost all our spells are easy. The most of the ship was created using Hogwarts' fourth and fifth year spells. A few sixth year spells and I think only one seventh. Some are overpowered versions; other spells are a bit modified. You only need to know a bit of muggle science and you'll find that even first year spell can be used in very unexpected ways..."

"But I thought that muggle technology wouldn't work with magic," Daphne said.

"Completely false dogma," Harry said. "Magic is all about intent and knowledge. If you don't understand technology you'll destroy it with magic. If you understand technology and want to use it, then it's very easy to make technology work along with the magic. Unless you, Daphne, learns technology you won't be able to incorporate it in your magic."

"Oh," she muttered. "That makes sense. Why no-one knows about it?"

"Wizards are stupid," Harry answered with a sigh. "Even muggleborns. They're even worse. They come to the wizarding world as kids, all excited about magic, use magic for everything and soon forget things they've learned in muggle school. At least, pure-bloods don't get too excited about magic and actually study it, instead of just using. The truth is, science isn't any less exciting. I'm not trying to tell you that magic is easier. It's not, but the majority don't create their own spells, don't create their own potions, don't study magic itself. Their whole life wizards learn nothing and do nothing."

"I do," Daphne said defensively. "I love working on new spells."

"You're one of the few exceptions," Harry said. "But even you didn't try to study muggle science. The problem is, science is difficult and you can do only few exciting things without lots of money knowledge and colleagues. It's understandable wizards don't try to learn it. They have magic."

"But anyway," he said with a sigh. "I was talking about first-year spells. The shield charm for example. Not the first year material, but it's still a good example. We took a look at many shield spells. There are, actually, similar charms, but to use them you need more than one caster. You know them from Hogwarts, probably. Your ring contains a soul and it's a very good energy source. That's why we don't need many wizards to create shield around you. Besides, the ring is made out of mithril. It amplifies the charm."

"You gave me a lot food for thoughts," she muttered. "You didn't explain why you and Hermione wanted to go to the Omega. The Citadel seems to be much better destination."

"Elementary. If you want to know more about life in a country, go to its poorest districts. Then you will see the true ugly face of the country. Hermione has that asari's memories, but it's difficult to build an opinion based on other's memories. Besides I wouldn't want to sort through seven hundred years of the asari's life…"

"Yeah," Daphne nodded. "I don't know how she is able to not lose herself in asari's memories."

"That's Hermione. She is bad at developing something entirely new, she isn't good at battle magic, she is quite bad at potions. Well, she can brew them well, but only by following instructions closely. However she's brilliant at everything else, including the mind arts. It has something to do with her brain that can hold all that knowledge of hers."

"Not good at battle magic?" Daphne raised an eyebrow.

"Well, better than you."

"I'm not that bad actually," Daphne noted. "My father trained me well."

"Didn't see you in action," he scowled. "Because you were, probably, hiding…"

"Harry, please," she interrupted him. "I know that I was a coward. I always was one. I wanted to help you with the Triwizard Tournament in the fourth year. I wanted to warn you about Umbridge in the fifth, I wanted to join your DA, I wanted to reveal the truth about Draco in the sixth…" She burst in tears,"…I wanted to help you fight in the Hogwarts battle, but I was afraid. I'm a coward and I'm sorry! I hope to be able to change. I'm trying for Merlin's sake!"

He felt a sharp twinge of guilt for making her cry. He was able to do bad things, but he wasn't heartless. Besides, the sight of the attractive blonde would melt even iciest hearts. Besides, Hermione was right, he was a pervert. He pulled her into a hug feeling extremely awkward. "I'm sorry," he said.

"You don't have to be," she said sobbing into his chest.

"Well," he heard Hermione's voice and winced. "I go out for a few minutes and you're hugging a crying girl. I would applaud for making her cry, but I don't like a sight of her in your arms. You'll sleep on a couch."

"But, Hermione! You don't mean it," he groaned breaking the hug. Neither Hermione nor Harry noticed a barely noticeable sly smile on Daphne's face.

"Next time, you'll know better than hug her," she said coyly. "I put Eve under a sleep potion for a few hours."

"Will she be ready for our tour through the Omega?" Daphne asked.

Hermione looked at her for a moment, then answered, "Yes."

"Say, how come… you and Hermione turned, well, dark?" was Daphne's next question.

"Morgan, save me, is that a game of hundred questions?" Hermione growled.

"That's only the second!" Daphne protested.

"Mione, the earlier she'll be through with questions, the quieter she'll be in the future," Harry said.

"Alright, but you'll be the one answering questions," Hermione said.

"So, Daphne, what did you mean with your question exactly? I'm sure you heard enough already to understand why."

"I know, but where did your attitude came from? I mean you're ready to sacrifice so much for… for your goals… I don't know…" she frowned unable to find right expression.

"For the Greater Good?" Harry helped her.

"Yes, exactly."

"I already told you, that the war changed us… But, if I'd be honest, it's more Dumbledore's fault," he said and smiled. "He raised me like a weapon. He placed me with abusive relatives, who told me every day that I were a worthless freak. He wanted me to be ready to sacrifice myself if it's necessary. He presented me a lot of challenges that could lead to my death in Hogwarts, so that I would be ready to face Tom. He asked Weasleys to befriend me, so that I would have an anchor to the light side. Sure he loved me almost like a grandson, he even gave me time to have fun and a bit of happiness… at a great price, lives of people who were dear to me, but he believed that I had to die in order to defeat Voldemort. As for Hermione… she was always with me and that affected her as well."

"That's horrible," Daphne whispered bewildered by his words. "I never thought about it this way. To think that Dumbledore…"

"You misunderstand me. I admire him. Sure, I don't like to be manipulated, but he did what was right. He did it for the Greater Good. You have to give it to him. His manipulations led to the victory over Riddle. To think that the battle was fought by Hogwarts students and a few Order members and was won! The only flaw I see in him is that he didn't understand that magic can't be evil. Tom said once, 'There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it'. And now I believe that he was right. If we need power to ensure the Good of everyone, then we'll seek it. A few sacrifices on the way don't matter. On the other hand Dumbledore was very reluctant to kill, we're not. Killing saves innocent lives. "

"That's deep," Daphne muttered, "But I'm not sure if I agree."

"The thing is, we don't care what others think, we do what we must," Hermione said.

* * *

><p>Soon the Pandora got to the Omega. Asteroids were quite troublesome, but it wasn't difficult to avoid big ones. Shields took care of the small ones. Their ship was too odd to request a docking permission, so they just flew in using ship's invisibility. Then Hermione and Daphne warded their landing platform against muggles. The station wasn't the nicest place they had seen. Daphne and Harry were immediately reminded of the new Diagon Alley.<p>

"Eww!" Eve exclaimed. "Did you see that ugly guy?"

"A vorcha," Hermione answered. "According to asari's memories they're quite aggressive and dumb. I need more intelligent specie to scan."

"You didn't tell about vorcha," Harry said.

She shrugged. "They don't matter. Vermins. Come on, we have to find a better place than this."

The space station was huge and Harry could barely believe that such thing existed. He was excited seeing it, but very troubled by the sight of dead bodies, an awful smell and hordes of hostile-looking and violence were everywhere and the trio was walking through the passages without getting unwanted attention only thanks to disillusionment charms.

"Now, at last something besides krogan and vorcha," Hermione said when they spotted an asari with a turian. The next moment she used Legilimency and a second later an expression of disgust appeared on her face, she fell down on her knees and vomited. "For Morgan's sake!" she exclaimed, wiping her mouth.

"What happened?" Harry asked rushing to her.

"I have a really bad luck with the targets," she answered breathing hard. "She's a prostitute. Asari are mostly just like human females, and I relieved a few of the memories where she... You don't want to know."

Everyone cringed at her words and Daphne said, "Perhaps you should choose a human."

"Shut up," Hermione snapped. "The last thing I need are your 'witty' advises."

"Are you alright?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Hermione answered in a lot more calmer voice. "I've blocked the unwanted memories, I'm not even sure what they were."

"Did you get something we may use?" he asked.

"Ye..." Hermione began to say, but was interrupted.

"She's dead!" Eve exclaimed in an excited voice pointing at a body of an asari.

"Well, she is," Harry said glancing at Daphne: this time it was her who vomited.

"And she has a huge hole in her chest," Eve said. "It's the first time I see something like this."

"Why do they leave the bodies like this?" Daphne asked in disgust.

"It's quite lawless part of the space station. Normally people don't go here if they don't want to make their lives very short, but interesting," Hermione explained. "Follow me, I'll lead you to the ruler of this place."

"Who is it?" Harry asked.

"An asari, Aria T'Loak. Our first target to get under control," Hermione said, the corners of her mouth quirked in an evil smile.


End file.
